Chapter 8 - Michael Torres

In Chapter 8 of the book, Kolbert introduces the reader to the possibility that climate change harms tropical life as it does arctic life.  She visits Peru where she meets ecologist Miles Silman who is tracking the effects of temperature on the diversity of the forests in Peru. Kolbert also discusses the different theories that could explain why such tropical climates allow for such vast biodiversity.  Such theories include that the tropical climate allows for more rapid reproduction, giving mutation and evolution more chance to happen. Another theory is that the climate accommodates for more different species to thrive. The chapter also highlights how climate change is going to force tropical life to migrate to more comfortable regions until there are none left.  This connects to the theme that biogeochemical systems vary in ability to recover from disturbances because there are some organisms in the tropical ecosystems that will be able to easily adapt to climate change by moving but it will not be for long. On page 172, Kolbert writes, “For plants to tolerate warmer temperatures there's all sorts of things that they could do...they could manufacture special proteins, They could change their metabolism, things like but thermal tolerance can be costly.”  This is a perfect example of the struggle some creatures will need to go through to adapt to threats like climate change. This also connects to the recurring idea of survival of the fittest and how