Australia can expect rapid and dramatic vegetation change within two or three generations if temperatures rise at predicted levels, scientists say.

August 31, 2018

Scientists studying ancient pollen have found that Australia can expect massive vegetation changes over the next 150 years if temperatures continue to rise.

An international team, including researchers from the Australian National University, used the pollen to study changes to the earth’s vegetation as it emerged from the last ice age.

Paleoecologist Simon Haberle says temperatures rose at similar levels to those predicted over the next 100 to 150 years.

“When climate changes and temperature increases by around by four to seven degrees there are major changes to vegetation almost worldwide,” Mr Haberle told AAP on Friday.

“Almost every ecosystem will change, in many cases, it will be dramatic.”

Prof Haberle said in the past ecosystems changed over thousands of years but if greenhouse gas emissions continue at present levels, the changes will begin within our grandchildren’s lifetimes.

“You might be familiar with walking through a wet rainforest or a woodland, or even open grasslands, but in two or three generations’ time that’s going to be dramatically different,” he said.

Australia has already begun to see the warning signs, with declines in the Mountain Ash forests in Victoria and the Pencil Pine forests in Tasmania, he said.

Prof Haberle said in Queensland humid rainforests were experiencing stress and fires, which are the beginnings of what could happen across the country if temperatures continue to rise.

“Some of the animals living in those environments are experiencing heat stress … also along the coast the mangrove forests have seen massive dieback recently, these are warning bells and the beginnings of what we may expect to happen.”