Scientists believe that human activities over the past hundred years are having a major impact on Earth's climate. Although the climate has certainly changed since its formation a little over 4.3 billion years ago, it has changed more rapidly since humans have begun burning mass quantities of fossil fuels and releasing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Knowing that the abiotic factors that define climate also characterize biomes, it makes sense that changes in climate will likely change Earth's biomes. Watch this video to see how scientists think climate change will affect biomes.

Consumption of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas release the gas carbon dioxide into the earth's atmosphere. Although carbon dioxide is a normal part of the atmosphere, scientists believe that human activities have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the last hundred years enough to affect the earth's climate. It's called climate change, and it will most likely have a major impact on earth's biomes. One of the abiotic factors most affected by climate change is temperature. This is because carbon dioxide acts as a greenhouse gas, meaning it traps heat from the sun next to the earth's surface. The increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is enough to increase the temperature 2 or 3 degrees. Although this may not seem like a lot, it would be enough to cause some pretty big changes. For example, cool biomes called tundra are dominated by organisms like lichens and mosses. The rates of the chemical reactions in the cells of these organisms will decrease or stop altogether if the temperature gets too warm. On the other hand, plants like grasses and coniferous trees will be more likely to grow in warmer temperatures. What we will see is a decrease in the tundra biome, and an increase in the coniferous forest biome. This may not seem like a big deal, but recall that in a food web, all organisms are related. A change in plant life is going to have profound effects in higher trophic levels. Similar effects are predicted in aquatic biomes. Although no one can tell for sure what will happen in the future. Scientists will continue to work to predict what will happen to the earth's biomes due to climate change, and attempt to find possible to solutions to the problems we, and the earth, will face.

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