Essay On Reproduction And Climate Change

There have been many concerns on reproduction and climate change in relation to animals and plants. How will they react ecologically and genetically to a changing climate? There are many documented cases now of disturbed seasonal patterns because of climate change in plants, insects, amphibians and birds (Parmesan 2007) and a mismatch between the seasonal peak in births and the peak of foraging conditions has been seen in a number of animals. One of these animals is yellow-bellied marmots of the Rocky Mountains. They are emerging 38 days earlier from hibernation than they did 28 years ago but now when they emerge the snow is far too deep for them to forage for herbs successfully (Inouye et al. 2000). Marmots have one very short breeding season a year. It occurs as soon as the females emerge from hibernation and almost 80 per cent of the variation in rate of pregnancy and litter size today is explained by the lack of snow melted and therefore lack of food available (Van Vuren & Armitage 1991).Photoperiodic cueing is more common among long-lived mammals while it is much less common in shorter lived mammals. This information suggests that as our climate changes the smaller mammals may adapt easily but the longer-lived mammals whose reproduction is regulated by photoperiod may not adapt as well.

As the climate warms, the timing of life history events of plants is changing, and this may have implications for reproduction. Changes to

In this essay, I am going to discuss how plants and animals have adapted in relation to seasonal reproduction and photoperiod and the effect of climate change on them. Seasonal reproduction is common among most species. Photoperiodism is the physiological reaction organisms have to the length of day or night. Photoperiodism can also be defined as the developmental responses of plants and animals to the relative lengths of light and dark