Climate change could cause 'generational trauma' in great apes
CBC
Some of Africa's great apes — humanity's closest cousins — face death and disruption as the planet warms, according to new research.
The findings, published today in the academic journal PLOS Climate, suggest climate change will create dangerous conditions in hundreds of ape habitats across the continent.
"They're facing a lot of threats that are much more imminent than climate change," said Stefanie Heinicke, a postdoctoral researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.
"But this will add an additional stressor — and in some habitats, it already has."
Heinicke, alongside African climate researchers, looked at 333 sites where African apes live, finding that all of them had experienced temperature increases. Using projections of a world warmed to both 2 C and 3 C above pre-industrial levels, the team found these habitats would also see more extreme impacts.
Heinicke's research points to more days where heavy rainfall would hit these habitats. As she explained to CBC News from Potsdam, there would also be an increased number "of consecutive dry days, so days where repeatedly you don't have any rainfall."
The research also found that some of these ape populations would be more exposed to extreme climate events like wildfires, drought, cyclones and heat waves — events that have the potential to not only reduce food security but physically break up groups, as seen during flooding from intense rainfall.
"When you have really large groups, it potentially cuts off individuals from other individuals that they might know," explained Ammie Kalan, a primatologist at the University of Victoria. She says this isolation breaks down the social networks of these apes, and that the longer these extreme climate events last, the worse the damage to the animals.
"It suggests generational trauma that's going to happen to these ape populations," Kalan told CBC News. She said the deaths of older members can affect the entire group's resilience.
"If you cut out whole generations, you lose these knowledgeable individuals that have the potential to provide that kind of safety net that can help out those younger individuals."
The greatest threat to ape populations in Africa is habitat loss, and the pressure of one extreme climate impact — crop failure — could feed into that.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest report says global warming will drive up heat waves and drought in Africa and is already reducing crop yields and productivity.
"What you see, as a result of humans then trying to survive in these desperate circumstances, is that they turn to the forest for resources," Kalan said, describing it as a source of food and fuel such as charcoal.
