Can Plants “Move” Fast Enough to Escape Climate Change?

Abstract

What would you do if temperatures were getting really warm where you live? You might put on some lighter clothes or maybe even move to a cooler place. Many plants do something similar—they “move” to cooler areas to survive current climate warming. Of course, plants cannot move like animals do, but they can slowly change locations as they release their seeds. How do we know that plants are moving? Scientists are studying areas that were first described hundreds of years ago. However, ecologists have found that even though plants respond to warming by changing locations, the temperature increase is so fast that plants cannot always move fast enough to escape the warming climate. This means that some plants might end up living under much warmer conditions than they prefer, which causes them a lot of stress. Stress makes plants vulnerable to other human influences, like land use change or invasive species, which can put entire plant species in danger.