Biodiversity and ecosystem services

Climate change generally exerts a negative impact on the health of ecosystems, influencing the habitats of the species, their composition (with losses or gains of biodiversity), their distribution and spatial extension (including in altitude). The effects of current and future trends in climate evolution intertwine with the pressure exerted by other non-climatic factors, which most often involve anthropogenic actions (e.g. deforestation, excessive grazing, pollution) and which affect biodiversity (e.g. loss of indigenous species, the occurrence of invasive species) and the services provided by natural ecosystems (e.g. carbon storage capacity). The cumulative effect of the action of climatic and non-climatic factors acts most prominently through the destruction of the current habitats and through disturbing the optimal conditions for the survival of species, which are forced to adapt to new environmental conditions, including the climatic ones. Download the brochure.