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Warming Climate Pushes Plants up the Mountain
http://uanews.org/story/warming-climate-pushes-plants-up-the-mountain[font face=Serif][font size=5]Warming Climate Pushes Plants up the Mountain[/font]
By Daniel Stolte, University Communications | August 14, 2013
[font size=4]Comparing plant communities today with a survey taken 50 years ago, a UA-led research team is providing the first on-the-ground evidence for Southwestern plants being pushed to higher elevations by an increasingly warmer and drier climate.[/font]
[font size=3]In a rare opportunity to directly compare plant communities in the same area now with a survey taken 50 years ago, a University of Arizona-led research team has provided the first on-the-ground evidence that Southwestern plants are being pushed to higher elevations by an increasingly warmer and drier climate.
The findings confirm that previous hypotheses are correct in their prediction that mountain communities in the Southwest will be strongly impacted by an increasingly warmer and drier climate, and that the area is already experiencing rapid vegetation change.
…
"Our study provides the first on-the-ground proof of plants being forced significantly upslope due to climate warming in southern Arizona," said Richard C. Brusca, a research scientist in the UA's department of ecology and evolutionary biology who led the study together with Wendy Moore, an assistant professor in the UA's department of entomology. "If climate continues to warm, as the climate models predict, the subalpine mixed conifer forests on the tops of the mountains – and the animals dependent upon them – could be pushed right off the top and disappear."
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.720By Daniel Stolte, University Communications | August 14, 2013
[font size=4]Comparing plant communities today with a survey taken 50 years ago, a UA-led research team is providing the first on-the-ground evidence for Southwestern plants being pushed to higher elevations by an increasingly warmer and drier climate.[/font]
[font size=3]In a rare opportunity to directly compare plant communities in the same area now with a survey taken 50 years ago, a University of Arizona-led research team has provided the first on-the-ground evidence that Southwestern plants are being pushed to higher elevations by an increasingly warmer and drier climate.
The findings confirm that previous hypotheses are correct in their prediction that mountain communities in the Southwest will be strongly impacted by an increasingly warmer and drier climate, and that the area is already experiencing rapid vegetation change.
…
"Our study provides the first on-the-ground proof of plants being forced significantly upslope due to climate warming in southern Arizona," said Richard C. Brusca, a research scientist in the UA's department of ecology and evolutionary biology who led the study together with Wendy Moore, an assistant professor in the UA's department of entomology. "If climate continues to warm, as the climate models predict, the subalpine mixed conifer forests on the tops of the mountains – and the animals dependent upon them – could be pushed right off the top and disappear."
…[/font][/font]