Impacts of climate change on Australia's Alpine region

¶ … Climate Change in Australia's Alpine Region

The environments of entire Australia comprise of approximately 0.3% of total global land mass. The alpine region of Australia is found along the mountain ranges of southeastern, central plateau and Victoria mountain ranges. The altitudes in the alpine area vary significantly ranging from Tasmania's 1,300 m to 1,850m in South Wales (Diaz, Beniston & Bradley, 2007).

Changes in climatic conditions have diverse potential impacts on the alpine region of Australia and subalpine lives because their existence is controlled by sensitive changes in temperatures. From data about temperatures in the alpine region, there are high elevation trends thus high chances of making significant impacts on the ecological diversity. The alpine region is experiencing reduced average precipitation per annum, which leads to a reduction in the Alps of south and an increase in the Alps on North. The precipitation of the Alps depends on global warming. This includes the snow, mountain, and the rains. The impacts of global warming on fauna and flora and the functioning ecosystem are the likely visible indications of changes in climate in the Alpine (Watson, Zinyowera & Moss, 2007). In the alpine region of Australia, if the temperatures increases by 30 C, alterations will be witnessed in the area's climatic environment, including the subalpine. As a result, the scarce endemic species are lost including ground water species such as peat lands, dogs, and fens. Similarly, the losses of endemic Feld mark herb field species of alpine and snow bank are evident. In this context, an increment in temperatures leads to an increased distribution of subalpine and dominant alpine plant species (Visconti, 2009).

If changes in climate occur in the montane and subalpine regions of Australian alpine, the results are expected to benefit weeds and the exotic community. These communities would have been excluded from the region of the Alps because of extreme conditions of the environment hitting higher altitudes. Climatic changes generating dry and warm conditions causing changes in altitudes of certain weed species have chances to increase. This process of invasion may be precipitated by the possibility of increased natural disturbance frequency; reducing the top layer of aboriginal vegetation. The region of Alps near Mount Kosciuszko is the smallest area and is likely to be vulnerable because it has a limited range of altitude. Most endemic communities are expected to perish due to lack of a permanent Alp zones. Global warming due to green house activities is expected to cause a reduction in snow covering the Alps in Australia. However, it is impossible for these trends to be detected because of seasonal characteristics of snow at varied locations (Dupeyras & Rey, 2011).

For decades, the southeastern regions of Australia have been experiencing global warming thus the need for an updated assessment on the snow trends showing any changes in the decline rate and the consistency of these trends with green house warming projections. According to Godde, Price & Zimmerman (2009), natural cover of snow projections has taken considerations of greenhouse warming thus changing scenarios in climatic conditions. The alpine region of Australia has been invaded by an assortment of feral animals and weeds. Most of these species include hares, horses, pigs, rabbits, and foxes. Weed species include the common cat sears, Dandelion, Brown top, Cock foot, and White cove. Currently, there is limited distribution of animals and exotic plants due to climatic factors in the Alpine region of Australia. This indicates that these species are expected to have direct benefits from a reduction in snow cover precipitating increased diversity exotics and abundance at any given time. In addition, it is expected that these species will benefit interruptions occasioned by climatic changes like alterations in patterns of human consumption. This includes changes in human activities and use of the environment as the number of tourists walking on the trails increase. This could also arise based on adjustments in the services of ecosystems in the area including great priority being placed on water harvesting in the area (Visconti, 2009).

MacCarthy (2010) argues that if snow cover is reduced and temperatures increased, the richness of species is likely to change in the Alpine regions of Australia. The richness of animal and plant species is associated with altitudes in the regions of the mountains across the world. In the mountainous areas, a great decline trend is exotic and native diversity of plants and increased endemic biota proportions due to increased altitudes. For instance, in the Alps of Australia, the distribution of varied plant and animal species is strongly influenced by the cover of snow. It is evident that changes in the extent of altitudes and migration times from lowlands across the mountain areas with reduced snow cover durations in the Alpine region exists. A variety of plant and animal communities are expected to experience gradual distribution changes. However, for other species there is the threat of a dramatic and rapid process. To be precise, this is expected to occur in situations where results of changes in climate in disassociation with key event timing among species (MacCarthy, 2010).