What do the following changes have in common?
Some ant species are struggling to follow trails, as warming temperatures cause a certain pheromone they use to communicate to decay.
The water fleas Daphnia are finding it harder to evade predators as CO2 levels rise in the water. And in coral reefs, the colourful and pretty damselfish are losing their ability to learn who their predators are.
All have been caused in some way by arguably the biggest change of all: climate change, which is also changing chemical communication in marine, freshwater and land-based species, with far-reaching implications for our planet’s future and human wellbeing.
Chemical communication plays an essential role in well-functioning ecosystems. This “language of life” regulates interactions between organisms and is essential to the environment, and ultimately, all life on Earth.
Interactions through so-called “infochemicals” are perhaps the oldest and most widespread form of communication on the planet. Infochemicals provide the basis for the vast majority of ecological processes across the tree of life, in both land and water, by serving as cues or signals that are present on the surface of organisms themselves or released into the surrounding environment.
They also help shape natural ecosystems by maintaining their equilibrium and, in doing so, support the provision of many things that are of great importance to humans, including food and clean water.
Infochemicals influence a broad range of functions and behaviour such as the relationship between predator and prey.For example, sharks use these chemicals to “sniff” out their prey over mindboggling distances.
These chemicals can affect foraging and feeding too. For example, infochemicals are released by some plant species to attract pollinators but repel those that may cause harm. In some cases, a plant under attack may even tell its neighbours of impending doom so they can respond accordingly, thus, infochemicals can influence habitat selection.
But climate change is altering the production of these info-carrying chemicals such as pheromones. This is having a major impact on a wide variety of species. Scientific research has shown that alterations in temperature, carbon dioxide and pH levels – all part of climate change – can affect every single aspect of the fundamental processes that organisms use to communicate with each other.
