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Food Security and the Urban Heat Effect

How does the UHE effect other areas?

How does the UHE effect food security?

The UHE has a damaging effect on progress in relation to food security around the world. We can se here that heat has a damaging effect on food security. This gives us reason to believe that the UHE with its long term increase of heat and short term heat waves will cause great damage to the area of food security. This can be caused by a a variety of factors. An example of this is how the heat causes people to be able to work less. This reduces many peoples income which can cause them to be less able to afford food.

How does the UHE effect abiotic and biotic factors in the environment?

The UHE effect has a large effect on the environments it emerges in. It affects abiotic factors and biotic factors very differently.

Biotic Factors

The UHE causes a variety of changes to biotic factors. It can reduce the quantity and quality of food or the amount of shelter that animals have. This is caused by the drastic change in temperatures.

An example of this is how increased heat affects grass. We’ve all seen the dead dry grass of the summer, now imagine that all year round. Grass provides a vital food source for many insects and animals.

Abiotic Factors

The UHE also causes change in abiotic factors too. One big difference is that abiotic factors can often absorb heat. For example rocks or stones. Many of these can absorb heat causing them to increase in temperature. This increase in temperature can damage many different animals or plants.

How does the UHE Affect Living Things?

There have been many long term and short term effects on living things caused by the UHE. Long term there have keyly been a variety of evolutionary effects of the UHE. Many animals have evolved to be better suited to these new environments. Some effects include, changes to metabolism, growth rate and physiological tolerance. Shorter term effects are very different to this. Many animals flee away from urban areas and towards rural areas or look for different food sources because of the UHE.