Global warming in the Wet Tropics: issues in tropical forest landscapes

Abstract

Humans are rapidly changing the nature of our planet in profound ways. Global changes include alterations to the vegetation cover of the land, the chemical composition of the earth’s atmosphere, global climate and climate variability, and the rapid and extensive introduction of exotic species.

Australia’s Wet Tropics are dominated by mountain ranges giving extremes of altitude from sea level to around 1600 metres. Most remaining rainforest in the Wet Tropics is above 300m and almost all species unique to this region are adapted to these cooler uplands. Temperature rises due to global warming would mean massive changes to these cool uplands, leading to loss of habitat. Consequently, the biological diversity and endemic species that are the keystone of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area are under severe threat.

Ecosystem processes and the provision of ecosystem services could also be severely affected by climate change, indicating how imperative it is to understand the processes that shape large scale regional ecological patterns over time. Only then can predictive tools be developed to enable realistic conservation planning for the unique ecosystems of the Wet Tropics and other rainforests in Queensland.