Global warming could adversely affect Oman’s natural species: Expert

Muscat: Oman, among other global nations, can suffer from a negative impact due to global warming, according to visiting faculty at the Sultan Qaboos University.
“Oman, among other countries, is subject to the climate change; it is a global concern and the problem is that there is an impact of this climate change on biodiversity, which means impact on all organisms, plants or animals, sometimes insects and microorganisms,” said Dr Badar Al Qamashoui.
“The impact includes depletion of these resources, their numbers decrease and their genetic makeup will also change, so there will be no adaptation to the change because climate change is occurring really fast now,” the expert stated.
“There has been pressure on the earth in the previous eras, which has increased very slowly, but in the last 200 years, the increase has been very fast and that’s why the animals and the species do not have the time to adapt to the changes.
” The impact of global warming could also deplete medicinal herbs, which are used for making traditional medicines.
“This is an issue and there is also a problem of the species near the coasts, especially when you speak of cyclones, and cyclones are a phenomena of climate change, so if these cyclones happen, some of the species near the coasts will also disappear, because they stay on the surface of the water and with cyclones, they can be carried far away from land and maybe a lot of them will disappear because they cannot go back to the sea.”
“Not just that, but there is also a problem with the coral reefs as they can also be damaged because of cyclones, some species, such as small fish will also be affected by the cyclone. Strong cyclonic rains can also cause the top soil to wear off away causing soil erosion.”
“During the last year, very strong rains have fallen in a short time period, and this affects the soil and lots of seeds are taken away and cannot be planted or are dug deep in the soil in the way they cannot be grown.” According to Dr. Qanashoui, certain steps need to be taken to avoid the depletion of resources.
“What we have to do, first of all we have to conserve our native species, especially in Oman or this area in general, because it’s one of the areas that has high temperatures, it’s a tropical country, where the animals and plant species have adapted to the environment for thousands of years.
The people still keep the native species that are not high in productivity, but are withstanding temperature and humidity, so there are some secrets inside their genes and we have to know these secrets, or how else will they adapt to the high temperatures?” Global warming also affects the normal food chain and water levels.
“Some of the impact is already visible, like there is water scarcity in the Al Batinah region because of the introduction of lots of new grasses for agriculture and these types of grasses need lots of water; it’s also different from our native grass, so people try to get extra water from underground to water these plants and that’s why the water resources and levels have become very low, and now the Batinah region also has a problem of salinity.”