Via: Scientific American

Global warming is leaving trees behind, according to a new study in Science. An analysis of forest species in six French mountain ranges (the western Alps, northern Pyrenees, Massif Central, western Jura, Vosges and the Corsican range) shows that more than two thirds of them moved at least 60 feet (18.5 meters) higher on the mountainsides per decade during the 20th century.

“Among 171 species, most are shifting upwards to recover temperature conditions that are optimum,” says ecologist and lead study author Jonathan Lenoir of AgroParisTech in Nancy, France. “Climate change has already imposed a significant effect in a wide range of plant species not restricted to sensitive ecosystems.”

Previous research has shown that plants at the highest elevations on mountains (and in the polar regions) have been shifting to adjust to global warming. But this is the first confirmation that entire ecosystems in lower, more temperate regions are moving as well.

“Species are not just moving at the extremes of their ranges,” says ecologist and co-author Pablo Marquet of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago. “What we show is that they are moving everywhere.”

Random Posts