Although all ecosystems are affected by a changing climate, the impacts can take a while to appear.
Although all ecosystems are affected by a changing climate, the impacts can take a while to appear. Changes in forest biodiversity, for example, are known to lag behind changes in a habitat’s temperature and precipitation.
Grasslands, on the other hand, are responding to climate change almost in real time, according to new research by the University of Michigan. Put another way, forests accumulate climate debt while grasslands are paying as they go, said the study’s lead authors, Kai Zhu and Yiluan Song.
“Climate change does have consequences for our ecosystems. It’s going to come sooner or later,” said Song, a postdoctoral fellow at the Michigan Institute for Data and AI in Society. “Grasslands are at the faster end of the spectrum.”
Read more at: University of Michigan
A hillside painted by the diversity of native forbs in Walker Canyon, California. This diversity, however, can shift rapidly under climate change, according to new research. (Photo Credit: Joan Dudney)
