Despite fundamental differences in their biology, plants and animals are surprisingly similar in how they have evolved in response to climate around the world, according to a new study published this week in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
Despite fundamental differences in their biology, plants and animals are surprisingly similar in how they have evolved in response to climate around the world, according to a new study published this week in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
Plants and animals are fundamentally different in many ways, but one of the most obvious is in how they deal with temperature.
"When it gets sunny and hot where they are at a given moment, most animals can simply move to find some shade and cool down," said lead study author John J. Wiens, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. "Plants on the other hand, have to stay where they are and tolerate these higher temperatures."
Together with Hui Liu and Quing Ye from the South China Botanical Garden, Wiens analyzed climatic data from 952 plant species and 1,135 vertebrate species. They included many major groups of flowering plants, from oaks to orchids to grasses, and all major groups of terrestrial vertebrates including frogs, salamanders, lizards, snakes, turtles, crocodilians, birds and mammals.
Read more at University of Arizona
Image: A Mexican leaf frog, photographed near Alamos, Mexico. Both plant and animal species in the tropics, like this frog, were found to occur over a narrower range of temperatures than temperate species, which may make tropical species much more vulnerable to climate change. (Credit: John J. Wiens)
