Climate change, unpredictable cold waves and possible brakes on plant migration

Increases in annual mean temperature in the course of current climate change are expected to facilitate mass species migration towards higher altitudes and latitudes. However, this migration may be slowed, or even temporarily reversed, by infrequent and unpredictable episodes of low winter temperatu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Global ecology and biogeography Vol. 19; no. 5; pp. 642 - 648
Main Authors:	Jalili, Adel, Jamzad, Ziba, Thompson, Ken, Araghi, M. K., Ashrafi, Sohaila, Hasaninejad, Maryam, Panahi, Parisa, Hooshang, Neda, Azadi, Rahman, Tavakol, M. S., Palizdar, Maryam, Rahmanpour, Afsoun, Farghadan, Farhood, Mirhossaini, S. G., Parvaneh, Kamyar
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford, UK Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-09-2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Blackwell Publishing Blackwell
Subjects:	Animal and plant ecology Animal, plant and microbial ecology Biogeography Biological and medical sciences Botanical gardens Climate change Climate models Climatology. Bioclimatology. Climate change deciduous Earth, ocean, space evergreen Exact sciences and technology External geophysics Frost damage Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology General aspects Iran Low temperature Meteorology plant diversity Plant ecology Plants Species Synecology unpredictable cold waves Winter Iran Asia plant diversity Temperature Cold unpredictable cold waves Migration Diversity Biogeography Environmental factor Ecology deciduous evergreen Dynamical climatology Climate change Iran
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Summary:	Increases in annual mean temperature in the course of current climate change are expected to facilitate mass species migration towards higher altitudes and latitudes. However, this migration may be slowed, or even temporarily reversed, by infrequent and unpredictable episodes of low winter temperatures. Iran experienced a severe cold wave in January and February 2008, giving an opportunity to observe the effects on a large number of woody plant species, many growing further north than their natural ranges. The study was carried out in the National Botanical Garden of Iran (35°44′20.06″ N; 51°10′25.66″ E). To estimate the damage caused to each individual woody plant in the garden, we adopted the following protocol; at the start of the growing season, at the end of March and beginning of April 2008, all woody species were inspected for damage. In the case of evergreens this took the form of obvious damage to foliage, usually manifested as severe browning. In the case of deciduous species, damage was recognized by the failure of all or part of the plant to produce new leaves; all affected individual plants were labelled. In July all labelled plants were rechecked and, based on whole or partial above-ground die-back, a final list of damaged individuals was produced. As expected, the majority of native and exotic species introduced from cold temperate habitats showed no freezing injuries. Many woody species in the garden were damaged or killed, despite their previous survival and growth, in many cases for up to 40 years. The majority of taxa (101 out of a total of 145) that suffered freezing-induced damage were evergreens. The results indicate that despite an increase in mean annual temperature, unpredictable lethal cold waves may retard the expansion of plants towards higher altitudes and latitudes. Broadleaved evergreen species from warm climates were particularly badly affected, with many species suffering high rates of mortality.
Bibliography:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00553.x ark:/67375/WNG-JD8KQJGR-B istex:6560E05CE2ABCF12811D66B9FC761147B59EF045 ArticleID:GEB553 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1466-822X 1466-8238
DOI:	10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00553.x