Rapid shifts in plant distribution with recent climate change
- *Center for Environmental Analysis, Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology, California State University, 5151 State University Drive, Biological Sciences 140, Los Angeles, CA 90032; and
- ‡Department of Earth System Science, University of California, 3319 Croul Hall, Irvine, CA 92697
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Edited by Christopher B. Field, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, CA, and approved June 6, 2008 (received for review March 24, 2008)
Abstract
A change in climate would be expected to shift plant distribution as species expand in newly favorable areas and decline in increasingly hostile locations. We compared surveys of plant cover that were made in 1977 and 2006–2007 along a 2,314-m elevation gradient in Southern California's Santa Rosa Mountains. Southern California's climate warmed at the surface, the precipitation variability increased, and the amount of snow decreased during the 30-year period preceding the second survey. We found that the average elevation of the dominant plant species rose by ≈65 m between the surveys. This shift cannot be attributed to changes in air pollution or fire frequency and appears to be a consequence of changes in regional climate.
Footnotes
- †To whom correspondence should be sent at the present address: Department of Earth System Science, Croul Hall, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697. E-mail: a.kelly{at}uci.edu
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Author contributions: A.E.K. and M.L.G. designed research; A.E.K. performed research; A.E.K. and M.L.G. analyzed data; and A.E.K. and M.L.G. wrote the paper.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
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See Commentary on page 11591.
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This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0802891105/DCSupplemental.
- © 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
