Image: Species stressed by climate change must move or adapt in order to persist. But can they? Jill Anderson (Courtesy faculty in Plant Biology and Professor in Genetics and in the Odum School of Ecology) and Megan DeMarche (Haines Family Assistant Professor of Plant Ecology in the Department of Plant Biology) and their coauthors set out to answer this question. Their research, published in the May 1st issue of Science reveals that even common plant species with a broad geographic distribution are at risk of decline based on climate change, potentially contributing to a loss in biodiversity. Their experiments with a widespread perennial wildflower, the Drummond's rockcress (Boechera stricta), in the Rocky Mountains show that plant adaptations to new climate conditions are not fast enough and their movement not far enough to keep up with climate change. They used up to 9 years of field data from 102,272 transplants (from 115 source populations) of Boechera stricta into five common gardens, to model whether Drummond’s rockcress populations are likely to grow, remain stable or decline over time. Their work shows the importance of accounting for evolution in ecological predictions and the limitations of current species distribution models in predicting species persistinec in the face of climate change. Read the article from the Odum School of Ecology (written by Allyson Mann) and the Original Article in Science. Read more about the research done in the labs of Megan DeMarche and Jill Anderson.
