Plants migrate to escape climate change
The Mountain Avens emigrated to Svalbard from Russia
Also In The News
|
English golfer Nick Dougherty carded an opening day 68 to earn a surprise clubhouse lead at two-under par after the opening stages of the 107th US Open. |  |
Friday, 15, Jun 2007 12:19
Some plant species may be able to travel long distances more readily than previously thought, scientists claim.
Fears have been raised that some species will not be able to adapt to climate change fast enough to ensure their survival.
Researchers had assumed that as global warming shifted the habitable zones to higher latitudes, long distance dispersal of plant species would happen rarely and randomly.
But a new study published in the journal Science today provides new hope for some plants.
Inger Greve Alsos of the University of Oslo and colleagues believe that some plant seeds can travel long distances, allowing a plant species to move into a new area.
They studied over 4,000 samples of nine different species of flowering plants on the remote Arctic island chain of Svalbard, which is about halfway between Norway and the North Pole.
The results suggest that these plants have migrated, probably via wind or sea ice, from all possible neighbouring source regions including Russia and Greenland.
This migration to Svalbard appears to have happened multiple times over the last 20,000 years.
As the plants appear to be such frequent movers, the researchers conclude that some plants should be able to migrate easily in response to climate change, as long as the right habitat is available.