Climate change is disrupting the "language of life" in all types of ecosystems

Climate change is disrupting chemical communication between living organisms - the 'language of life' - in all types of ecosystems on Earth, according to a new paper co-authored by the University of Hull, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, University of Liège and Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research GmbH - UFZ, published on 16 May 2022.

Becoming nose-blind - climate change impacts on chemical communication' is a comprehensive overview of the scientific evidence gathered from experiments in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. It is the first time that researchers have demonstrated that climate change affects interactions between living organisms in different environments and in similar patterns.

Chemical communication plays an essential role in ecosystems, allowing organisms to mate and interact with each other, locate predators, food and habitats; and sense their surroundings. This paper demonstrates how alterations in temperature, carbon dioxide levels and pH levels - which are created as a result of climate change - can affect every step of this fundamental communication by which organisms communicate with each other. These chemical communication processes regulate interactions in terrestrial ecosystems and are essential to our environment.

Dr Christina C. Roggatz, a researcher in marine chemical ecology at the University of Hull and lead author of the paper, said: "This research is a wake-up call. We are heavily dependent on ecosystems and therefore on the various chemical communication pathways that regulate them. The primarily negative effects that climate change has on the 'language of life' in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems could have a range of far-reaching implications for the future of our planet and human well-being, for example by affecting food security and the fundamental ecosystem services that make our planet habitable."

Published this 16 May 2022 in the journal Global Change Biology, the paper is an international collaboration between researchers from the UK, Germany and Belgium, all of whom are experts in the field of chemical ecology in different areas of terrestrial, freshwater and marine systems.

By combining examples from these different environments, the paper highlights universal patterns of climate change impacts. It identifies key aspects that need to be understood urgently in order to improve our ability to predict and mitigate the effects of climate change. The authors also call for a systematic and universal approach to fill the knowledge gaps identified.