Extreme weather events: Impact on ecosystem structure and function

Extreme weather events have been predicted to take place as a result of global climate change. Global climate change in lay terms is simply a change in the global climate i.e. disruption in the world’s weather and climatic events. This itself is as a result of so many factors like greenhouse emissions, solar irradiance, and volcanic eruptions among others. Thus, extreme weather events are events that are severe and have potentials to disrupt normal social life and loss of lives and property. Extreme weather events include but not limited to the following:
• Tornado: clouds, strong wind, rain, hail
• Hurricane or cyclone: strong wind, heavy rain
• Blizzard: heavy snow, ice, cold temperatures
• Dust storm: strong winds, arid conditions
• Flood: heavy rainfall
• Hail storm: cold or warm temperatures, rain, ice
• Ice storm: freezing rain

For example, according to IPCC it has been stated that drought might be longer or severe while precipitation might lead to flooding in certain part of the world.

Thus, these extreme weather events which are bound to occur or in fact occurring in certain places are also bound to have certain impacts on our ecosystem. However, the extent and the trend of these impact will also depend on the existing climatic variabilities in the affected areas.
The impact these events on our ecosystem has been a topical area of research and it is presently receiving attention in the world of biological research. The impacts are generally on both the structure and functioning of our ecosystems (Terrestrial and aquatic). Structure here refers to organization, form, and shape of these systems, while function refers to the various forms of activities that keep and maintain the structure of these systems.
I have been privileged to work both in the terrestrial and aquatic systems but more often in the terrestrial systems (forest and grassland) which is going to be the major systems I will be talking about.
The terrestrial system is so vast and it is made up of the following
Grassland ecosystem
Forest ecosystem
Tundra ecosystem and
Desert ecosystem
Extreme weather events will probably alter the magnitude and frequency of forest disturbances which will, in turn, affect the structure of these forests. For example, in a case of hurricane or cyclone, trees and shrubs are affected as they fall and lose their branches thereby disrupting the structure of the forest. Apart from this, animals’ nest and homes are lost causing a change or total alteration in their niche system. This leads to a reduction or loss of biodiversity resources. Also, the ability of the forest to sequester carbon is reduced as a result of loss forest species hence causing a change in the carbon pool and the overall ecosystem productivity.

I wish to dwell more on this in subsequent write up as I take you through a journey of the impact of extreme events on our ecosystem.

Reference
Pictures source: Wikimedia common images
Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (2014)