As spring advances across the Midwest, a new study looking at blooming flowers suggests that non-native plants might outlast native plants in the region due to climate change.
As spring advances across the Midwest, a new study looking at blooming flowers suggests that non-native plants might outlast native plants in the region due to climate change.
The study -- led by researchers at Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute, part of IU's Prepared for Environmental Change Grand Challenge initiative, and Michigan State University -- has revealed that warming temperatures affect native and non-native flowering plants differently, which could change the look of local landscapes over time.
The study was published May 28 in the journal Ecology Letters.
"The timing of a plant's life cycle is crucial for species survival," said study co-author Jen Lau, an associate professor in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Biology and a member of the Environmental Resilience Institute. "When a plant flowers determines whether it will be pollinated by bees or other insects and how much time it will have to produce seeds. Our data makes me worry that we will have a very weedy world in our future."
Read more at Indiana University
Image: Mark Hammond, a field technician in the lab of Jen Lau, surveys the heating rings for flowering native and non-native plants. (Credit: Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research Program at Michigan State University)
