Global Warming May Force Native Californian Plants to Migrate, Study Says

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from Bloomberg:



Californian Plants Threatened by Warming, Study Shows (Update1)

By Adam Satariano

June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Plants found only in California may need to migrate about a mile (1.6 kilometers) a year into cooler or wetter regions to survive as global warming makes traditional habitats less hospitable, a scientific study found.

As temperatures rise and rain patterns change, many native species will need their seeds blown or carried by animals to the north or toward the coast, according to the investigation by researchers at three U.S. universities, whose results will be published tomorrow in PLoS-ONE, an online scientific journal.

Moving a mile a year would be a faster pace than achieved by flora that survived the changing temperatures during ice age thousands of years ago, said David Ackerly, a professor of integrative biology at University of California, Berkeley.

``I'm sure we will see some extinctions in the next 100 years,'' Ackerly, a co-author of the study, said in an interview. The study is the first to examine how climate change will affect an entire region of vegetation, its authors said.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said last year the Earth will likely warm by 1.1 degree to 6.4 degrees Centigrade (2 degrees to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100, worsening droughts, melting ice caps and raising sea levels, unless greenhouse-gas emissions are slashed.

Introducing trees or flowers to areas where climate models project the Californian species may later thrive is being considered by biologists and botanists, though there are concerns about disease and other drawbacks to transplants, he said. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aey1Cw3BZU_8&refer=home