1. Effects of an increasing global temperature

Earth
Multiple studies have shown that temperatures around the world have risen more than 1℉
(0.6℃) over the past century. Multiple changes have been seen, such as: glaciers shrinking,
permafrost thaw, lengthening of growing seasons, a decline in plant and animal populations, and
trees beginning to flower earlier. It is likely that human activities have caused most of the
increase in temperature globally. Even dating back to before the Industrial Revolution, carbon
dioxide has increased 30 percent (Casper, 2010). The warming changes continue to increase
evaporation. An increase in evaporation will cause a more intense hydrologic cycle. The higher
the evaporation rates increase the more plants and soils will dry up causing drought-like
symptoms.

Temperate Forests
If we are talking about global warming and carbon dioxide, then it is important to understand
what role forests play in the system. Forests can store huge amounts of carbon dioxide, and like
other vegetation and soils within forests, trees help sequester carbon dioxide by way of
photosynthesis and help drive the global carbon cycle. Unfortunately, we are losing the trees at a
rapid rate caused by our overall human activity. Forests are an ecosystem that, if managed
properly, could be used to help combat the effects of global warming. However, because of
human activity the carbon is no longer there, and when trees are burned all the carbon stored will
be released back into the atmosphere. A major effect of global warming is plant and animal
species being forced to migrate or adapt faster. Undergoing these changes could disrupt entire
ecosystems. Researchers had predicted that forests will change with frequency and intensity of
fires. It has also been stated that the forest ecosystem will become more disturbed by extreme
weather (Casper, 2010). On a severe scale, an increase in temperature globally would cause slow
growing plant species to be overrun by fast growing or invasive species. Plant species would
migrate both in latitude and elevation. This is a major negative impact on biodiversity and
several regions of the world. The most vulnerable forest biomes may disappear forever.
2. Global temperature increases effects on food webs in terrestrial forest regions
These ecosystems must supply the needs for the organisms who reside there. Resources like
food, water, appropriate temperature, oxygen, and minerals. Temperature increasing would mean
a more scarcity in water supplies negatively impacting the plants and animals because it would
allow them time to adjust. Global warming is having a great impact on these forest ecosystems
because the different species are unable to adapt or survive the changes creating the potential to
become extinct. Once an animal leaves a food chain, the impact is will be felt throughout the
chain as other species attempt to adjust not only to warmer temperatures but also to the other
physical and chemical effects of global warming. Warming conditions can affect both flora and
fauna in a food web (Casper, 2010).

Plants

Animals and humans
3. Global warming increasing the risk of fires
Temperate forests have been maintained by frequent, low-severity fires for many years until the
implementing of the fire suppression policy. The increasing temperature puts the forests at risk
of uncontrollable burns that could devastate the ecosystem. Carbon stocks are at risk due to the
fires and the fire suppression policy is said to have contributed to growth in forest carbon stocks.
Fire suppression in these forests has led to an ingrowth of trees that would seem to lead to larger
carbon stocks. In some temperate forests, reducing the number of large trees results in the
reduction of carbon stored (Hurteau et al., 2011). As previously stated, the increase in
temperature causes the vegetation and plants to become dry. This ultimately allows for the higher
risk of uncontrollable fires in forests just from heat alone.
4. Forest fire effects
The increase in greenhouse concentrations will not only be caused from the warming of Earth’s
surface, but also accompanied by changes in precipitation patterns and climate variability. Some
plant species have adapted to a variety of environmental conditions that have already occurred,
such as the timing and severity of fires. However, some species may not be ale to continue to
adapt to a new climatic regime if the conditions become greater than the tolerances that have
already been created (Veblen et al., 2003). The results of forest fires can have a cascading effect
on the distributions of plant species and could affect biotic diversity and ecosystem function. A
major issue as a result of climate change is the possible increase in frequency and size of
wildfires. This is seen as a big problem because of the complex existing challenges we face
today. These changes to wildfires can foster important consequences like species composition,
structure of vegetation and native plant diversity. Our climate is the driving force for how
wildfires burn across a wide set of temporal variations. The temperature, precipitation, and
humidity affect the burning of wildfires by creating the overall moisture levels in vegetation and
also the levels of heat transfer needed for igniting the fuel. On a shorter time scale, climate
variability can have an impact on droughts and on the duration of wildfire season. These shorter
seasons allow for fewer opportunities of wildfires occurring which influences the frequency at a
location. Climate on longer time scales can change the overall fire regimes by manipulating the
distribution of plants, and growth rates. The changing climate could impact the changes in types
of vegetation and changes in other associated fuels which would create a change in the patterns
of occurrences and spread of fires. These changes may directly affect the frequency and severity
of wildfires which could alter the vegetation in that area (Veblen et al., 2003).
Tolerances to environmental factors such as temperature, moisture, light, and nutrients differ
between plant species and typically there is a minimum and/or maximum; many species are
likely competing for resources. Changes in environmental factors that may exceed a tolerance
level of a species could result in them becoming locally extinct in that region. These changes
could even cause an imbalance in competitive species resulting in an increase of one species over
another. These climate change disturbances foster the establishment for new plants depending on
the species ability to take advantage of new environmental conditions. The rate to which the
vegetation species respond to the changes in climate could be accelerated by an increase in fire
occurrence. This results in a response to climate change dependent on species present, site
conditions, and creation of sites by environmental disturbances (Veblen et al., 2003).
5. Forest fire effects on the atmosphere
Increasing temperatures, droughts, and large wildfires have caused large disturbances in
temperate forests across the globe. These disturbances have caused forest diebacks far beyond
what has been previously researched. These changes, also called mega disturbances, can worsen
and as a result could lead to huge amounts of carbon being released into the atmosphere. An
increase of carbon in this proportion could cause an exacerbation of human health issues and
degrade the goods and services we receive from the ecosystem (Fischer et al., 2018). In the
United States, because temperate forests inhabit about 40 percent of the land a temperature
increase and precipitation decrease could alter the functions of temperate forests and the people
would feel those affects. The people living within those forest areas would directly be exposed to
those changes in climate and depending on the community there could be a higher sensitivity to
ecological changes and hazards because of proximity or reliance on the biome.
The increase of wildfires caused by climate-related changes may require changes to be made to
the management of forests and other economic and social activities. Certain areas may have the
ability to adapt but others might possibly lack the resources or information needed to find
alternative solutions of improving economic and social activities. These areas that could be
largely impacted are cities where there is a low per capita income, a persistent poverty, high rates
of unemployment, and a constant dependance on public and government services. The increase
of wildfires could the people in these cities at risk for stress, diseases, allergies, air pollution, and
extreme weather. Even more dependent on the forests, indigenous populations would face more
difficulty adapting because they have a more limited ability to relocate (Fischer et al., 2018).
Several of Earth’s regions are incredibly prone to high occurrences of wildfires. Knowing this,
we need to learn better possibilities for coexisting with fire aside from the already implemented
fire suppression policy. The cost for this suppression policy has greatly increased and the
negative impacts of wildfires are reaching epidemic heights. Furthermore, many of the world’ s
ecosystems and their inhabitants are dependent on fi re for their continued existence. (Scott,
2014).
Ecosystems net productivity and vegetation structure and dynamics can be directly driven by the
effects of climate change. Fires play the major role in the disturbance regime. A shift in this
regime can causes permanent changes to the composition of plant species communities, and the
function of nutrient, water, and carbon cycles (Loustau, 2010).
The interactions between forests, fire, and carbon are cyclic. A forest tree will die after a
disturbance, in this case a fire, replacing old growth with new growth. If this cycle is sustained,
then there is no net carbon change within the carbon cycle of that forest. The fire will consume
about 10 to 20 percent of the carbon produced but emits it back into the atmosphere immediately.
The fire will kill the trees, but it does not consume them. As the new trees grow, they begin
storing carbon, as the old trees decompose, they are emitting carbon into the atmosphere, and as
the organic layer of soil accumulates it also stores carbon. This balance determines if the forest is
considered a net source or if it is a carbon sink. Directly following a fire, the carbon released is
dissipated into the atmosphere through the combustion process. These fires kill the living
biomass and the possible carbon gains are reduced to almost nothing. The strongest effects on the
cycling of carbon are the changing of subsequent decomposition and carbon gains through new
vegetation growth (Ryan, 2010). While the dead biomass is undergoing decomposition post-fire,
it can release three times the amount of carbon that was lost in the combustion during the fire.
While this is happening, the carbon lost will begin to exceed the accumulating carbon in
regrowth. The forest will continue to grow, and decomposition will end, and then the carbon
storage in the trees will catch up and the balance will get closer to zero (Ryan, 2010).
In some areas of the world, dominant species dealing with climate change may not be affected as
drastically as others in areas with higher moisture levels. However, in more extreme situations
certain species will not undergo the development of leaves, affecting their flammability since
there will be a lower water content and more energy content (Loustau, 2010). A prolonged
drought could also have serious implications on the total or partial death of species and be an
addition to dead material. In order for there to be positive feedback, the trees would need to
adapt to the availability of water which would limit their death and stress from insufficient water
source (Loustau, 2010).