Mitigating the Impacts of Climate Change on Disaster Risks Through Soil Ecosystem Services

Abstract

Global change will cause marked climatic alterations on a local scale; however, it remains intensely debated and new insights into their impacts on soil biota are needed. Responses of soil ecosystem to climate change can also have a substantial impact on the carbon (C) cycle (soils are estimated to contain more than double the amount of C than in vegetation). Biodiversity and ecosystem functions are influenced by climate change and species ranges are shifting. Predictions for the agricultural land area (mainly for food, fibre and fuel) showed increases by 23 (cropland) and 16 % (pastures). The ecosystem services of soils are often not recognised and the impact of agriculture e.g. on soil structure (essential for facilitating water infiltration, success of sustainable agriculture, and preventing erosion) is an issue urgent to study. As biodiversity in all biomes is sensitive to global changes in environment and land use, as well as to mitigate the problems of climate change, ecosystem services of soils which are under high mismanagement and declining soil fertility (that have allowed water pollution in urban river basins) must be taken into account and more widely discussed. Communities living near waterways extensively modify riparian zones (important for reducing floods) and, in order to alleviate the problems of climate change taking into account biodiversity in riparian systems, changes in land use must be controlled. This chapter addresses this issue by drawing on soil properties, soil biota and on current thinking regarding ecosystem services, in order to attain a better understanding of ecosystems and disaster risk, especially in Brazil. For this purpose, a case study in the south-eastern region of Brazil has been analysed.