Biodiversity is the makeup of living organisms within an area. Patterns of plants and animals have changed throughout the planet's history in response to the changing climate. The ability of plants and animals to absorb changes to the land, ocean and atmospheric systems in which they exist is referred to as resilience. Some ecosystems are more sensitive to changes in their surroundings (i.e. they are less resilient) than others. Ecosystems respond to such changes through the natural process of evolution or by migrating to other locations that better suits their requirements. Both evolution and migration take long periods of time. The fossil record allows us to understand how plants and animals have historically changed based on the climate of a particular time in earth's history.
The ability of a particular ecosystem to adapt to changes to the land, oceans or atmosphere will depend on the extent of such changes and the rate of change (i.e. how quickly the change occurs). It is the rate of human induced climate change that is particularly concerning. The pace of atmospheric CO2 increases and associated temperature rises is unprecedented in earth's history. If plant and animal life cannot adapt or migrate at the same pace as their surroundings are changing, those species risk being negatively impacted by such changes. According to the Millenuim Ecosystem Assessment, climate change is likely to become one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss by the end of the century.
