As climate warms, a rearrangement of world’s plant life looms

Re:As climate warms, a rearrangement of world’s plant life l... by justinator on Tuesday July 06, 2021 @02:03PM (#27752131)

As with changing temperatures, I don't think it's the fact that they're changing, but the velocity of these changes that's particularity worrisome.

If a 1,000 year old tree suddenly can't survive in the now new climate in the same location, that's a little bit more than curious.

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Re:As climate warms, a rearrangement of world’s plant life l... by TeMPOraL on Tuesday July 06, 2021 @02:57PM (#27752825)

Exactly. All life has a capacity to adapt, but it is mostly[0] constrained by lifespan. Individual organisms don't adapt - their type does, over time, through generations breeding and dying. But if the environment is changing faster than that - faster than what it takes to cycle through a couple generations - then the organism type won't ever be able to catch up.

[0] - Excluding shenanigans like horizontal gene transfer, that are mostly relevant to bacteria and archaea.

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