Climate change and plant distribution

Climate change is a hotly debated topic round the globe. We have already started feeling its effect in our daily life. Worse is yet to come warns scientist. Here comes solid evidence that it is affecting the plant community. According to researchers climate change is changing the distribution pattern of plants. They are increasingly going up hill in a search for cooler conditions. A study of 171 forest species in mountain ranges of Western Europe revealed startling fact that many plants had climbed on an average of 29 metres each decade. Smaller species such as ferns, with shorter reproduction cycles, were the quickest to move. Prof: Jonathan Lenoir an ecologist at AgroParisTech, France led the research. The research team compared the distribution of forest species between 1905 and 1985 with their distribution between 1986 and 2005 to arrive at their conclusions. The findings have been published in the latest issue of Science journal.