Are plant species able to keep pace with the rapidly changing climate?

PLoS One. 2013 Jul 24;8(7):e67909. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067909. Print 2013.

Abstract

Future climate change is predicted to advance faster than the postglacial warming. Migration may therefore become a key driver for future development of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. For 140 European plant species we computed past range shifts since the last glacial maximum and future range shifts for a variety of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios and global circulation models (GCMs). Range shift rates were estimated by means of species distribution modelling (SDM). With process-based seed dispersal models we estimated species-specific migration rates for 27 dispersal modes addressing dispersal by wind (anemochory) for different wind conditions, as well as dispersal by mammals (dispersal on animal's coat - epizoochory and dispersal by animals after feeding and digestion - endozoochory) considering different animal species. Our process-based modelled migration rates generally exceeded the postglacial range shift rates indicating that the process-based models we used are capable of predicting migration rates that are in accordance with realized past migration. For most of the considered species, the modelled migration rates were considerably lower than the expected future climate change induced range shift rates. This implies that most plant species will not entirely be able to follow future climate-change-induced range shifts due to dispersal limitation. Animals with large day- and home-ranges are highly important for achieving high migration rates for many plant species, whereas anemochory is relevant for only few species.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Climate Change*
  • Climate*
  • Plants*
  • Population Dynamics
  • Seed Dispersal / physiology
  • Wind

Grants and funding

The present study was conducted at the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F, http://www.bik-f.de/), Frankfurt a.M., and funded by the research funding programme “LOEWE – Landes-Offensive zur Entwicklung Wissenschaftlich-ökonomischer Exzellenz” (http://www.hmwk.hessen.de/irj/HMWK_Internet?uid=fa560c0b-ed11-9311-1010-43bf5aa60dfa) of Hesse's Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and the Arts, as well as by the German Research Foundation DFG (http://www.dfg.de/, grant no. TA 311/2-3). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.