Plants climb to evade warming

By Clive Cookson
Published: June 27 2008 03:00Plants are climbing to higher ground to escape the effects of global warming. An extensive study in mountainous regions of France shows that forest plants are moving their range upwards at an average rate of 29 metres in altitude per decade.
There is already much evidence of plants and animals moving to higher latitudes as temperatures rise. The French study, published today in the journal Science, shows that animals move upwards too, when the terrain permits.
Jonathan Lenoir and colleagues at AgroParisTech compared the distribution of 171 plant species between 1905-1985 and 1986-2005 on six mountain ranges.
The researchers found wide variation in the rate at which plants are climbing upwards, leading to fears that global warming will disrupt ecological networks of interdependent species.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008