Effects of Climate Change on the Grasslands

Abstract

Climate change refers to the increase in greenhouse gases and changes in all kinds of climate with global warming. Concentration of CO2, one of the greenhouse gases, in the atmosphere increased over the 30% during the last 50 years, and this increase is expected to increase more rapidly at the next century. Climate change can lead to changes in temperature and precipitation. Flora is also varying in parallel to the climate change. In some part of the world, the number of plant species is decreasing, and it is expected that the number of the plant species adapting cool climates will decrease even further since these species cannot adapt to high temperatures. Climate change is importantly affecting yield of the grasslands. Higher increase in productivity in the western hemisphere in compared to the Eastern Hemisphere shows vulnerability of the grassland in North America, Central Asia, Central Africa and Oceania to the climate change. Global warming in areas with high summer temperatures affects feed consumption efficiency, live weight gain, milk yield and reproduction of the animals negatively. In cool regions, the effect of global warming is less felt. Intensive efforts are being made to investigate and predict the effects of climate changes on the grasslands. Detailed modeling studies are needed to make high predictions about the future. According to the forecasts made, it is predicted that global warming will be effective especially in Turkey. For this reason, drought tolerant varieties of forage plants should be developed and forage plant species with C4 photosynthesis adapting to different ecological regions of our country should be determined as well as the researches on the growing and breeding techniques of those plants should be conducted.