Climate researchers warn of ecosystem collapse

Climate Futures researcher Dr Bec Harris was lead author on a journal article in Nature Climate Change, and also co-authored an allied article on some of the authors’ research in The Conversation. 

The article detailed the “press” of the gradual ongoing stress of climate change and the “pulse” of extreme events in precipitating a series of sudden and catastrophic ecosystem shifts that have occurred recently across Australia. Such changes are overwhelming ecosystems’ natural resilience. The article detailed effects in ecosystems as diverse as mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Victorian alpine ash forests and kelp forests in Tasmania under climate change, and discussed imperatives conservation management in this context.