Key impacts of climate engineering on biodiversity and ecosystems, with priorities for future research

[Andrew Lockley]

Abstract

Climate change has significant implications for biodiversity and ecosystems. With slow

progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, climate engineering (or

‘geoengineering’) is receiving increasing attention for its potential to limit anthropogenic

climate change and its damaging effects. Proposed techniques, such as ocean fertilization for

carbon dioxide removal or stratospheric sulfate injections to reduce incoming solar radiation,

would significantly alter atmospheric, terrestrial and marine environments, yet potential sideeffects of their implementation for ecosystems and biodiversity have received little attention.

A literature review was carried out to identify details of the potential ecological effects of

climate engineering techniques. A group of biodiversity and environmental change

researchers then employed a modified Delphi expert consultation technique to evaluate this

evidence and prioritize the effects based on the relative importance of, and scientific

understanding about, their biodiversity and ecosystem consequences. The key issues and

knowledge gaps are used to shape a discussion of the biodiversity and ecosystem implications

of climate engineering, including novel climatic conditions, alterations to marine systems and

substantial terrestrial habitat change. This review highlights several current research priorities

in which the climate engineering context is crucial to consider, as well as identifying some

novel topics for ecological investigation.

Keywords

biodiversity, carbon dioxide removal, climate engineering, ecosystems, geoengineering, solar

radiation managemen

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1943815X.2016.1159578

[Andrew Lockley]

Oops that's really old, sorry! 

[Alan Robock ☮]

I'm amazed that they did not even reference our recent article on the same topic:

Zarnetske, Phoebe L., Jessica Gurevitch, Janet Franklin, Peter Groffman, Cheryl Harrison, Jessica Hellmann, Forrest M. Hoffman, Shan Kothari, Alan Robock, Simone Tilmes, Daniele Visioni, Jin Wu, Lili Xia, and Cheng-En Yang, 2021: Potential ecological impacts of climate intervention by reflecting sunlight to cool the Earth. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 118 (15), e1921854118, doi:10.1073/pnas.1921854118. https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/118/15/e1921854118.full.pdf

The abstract says, "A literature review was carried out to identify details of the potential ecological effects of climate engineering techniques." but it was clearly incomplete.

Alan Robock

Alan Robock, Distinguished Professor
Department of Environmental Sciences         Phone: +1-848-932-5751
Rutgers University                            E-mail: rob...@envsci.rutgers.edu
14 College Farm Road            http://people.envsci.rutgers.edu/robock
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8551     ☮ https://twitter.com/AlanRobock

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to geoengineerin...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/geoengineering/CAJ3C-07gFqi3ATMb%2BZ00NjcS2EoBuvxnKGd%2BvJiaNCxAAStCng%40mail.gmail.com.

[Gideon Futerman]

Your article was published 5 years after the article Andrew posted which is probably why! 🙂

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/geoengineering/f905ae9f-37b2-4bf8-29cc-c45e3ea51d36%40envsci.rutgers.edu.

[Cush Ngonzo Luwesi]

I realize that both Zanerstke et al. (2021) and McCormack et al. (2016) record a high level of uncertainty of solar GE technologies on ecosystems and biodiversity. But unlike the recent paper, the former one suggest new avenues of research to reduce the gap in knowledge. I actually buy the idea that researchers working on ecology and natural resources management shall focus on these pending issues to reduce the uncertainty of climate intervention. Otherwise, it can easily be weaponized by superpowers and destroy entire nations. In such case, we would have contributed to this moral hazard.

Cush

Prof. Cush Ngonzo Luwesi, PhD
Director of Postgraduate Studies (Francophone Africa Virtual Campus)
Ballsbridge University
WFG (jombi), Mesing 14, Willemstad, Curacao, The Netherlands
WhatsApp: +243 970 649 946
Website: www.fr-acedu.org
E-mail: lc...@fr-acedu.org

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/geoengineering/CAK73TMJO_bvY6_8xSK0yYyCUND1w_0h284RrN186ge3_S97TzQ%40mail.gmail.com.