Climate Change and the Future of California's Endemic Flora
Abstract
The flora of California, a global biodiversity hotspot, includes 2387 endemic plant
taxa. With anticipated climate change, we project that up to 66% will experience >80%
reductions in range size within a century. These results are comparable with other
studies of fewer species or just samples of a region's endemics. Projected reductions
depend on the magnitude of future emissions and on the ability of species to disperse
from their current locations. California's varied terrain could cause species to move
in very different directions, breaking up present-day floras. However, our projections
also identify regions where species undergoing severe range reductions may persist.
Protecting these potential future refugia and facilitating species dispersal will
be essential to maintain biodiversity in the face of climate change.
Type
Other articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4497Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1371/journal.pone.0002502Citation
Loarie,Scott R.;Carter,Benjamin E.;Hayhoe,Katharine;McMahon,Sean;Moe,Richard;Knight,Charles
A.;Ackerly,David D.. 2008. Climate Change and the Future of California's Endemic Flora.
Plos One 3(6): e2502-e2502.
Collections
More Info
Show full item record
Articles written by Duke faculty are made available through the campus open access policy. For more information see: Duke Open Access Policy
Rights for Collection: Scholarly Articles
Works are deposited here by their authors, and represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info