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| Robot Nomads (see video below) |
"Trees and other flora can't walk, so they will die in place as climate change takes place" was one response to the first post in this series.
The scientists who uttered that nonsense should know better (Amazonian Trees are Migrating: More Climate Change Troubles).
We have many observations of both flora and fauna moving as a result of climate change:
Shrubs expanding northward into a warming Arctic -- and growing taller as they did -- paved the way for moose to expand their range northward too.(As shrubs expanded into a warming Arctic, moose followed). This is also instructuve:
That's the finding of a newly published study by scientists with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Narsaq’s largest employer, a shrimp factory, closed a few years ago after the crustaceans fled north to cooler water. Where once there were eight commercial fishing vessels, there is now one.(Perfect Storm: New Global Ground Zero). The Cod have also either migrated or died out, and jellyfish have moved into their prior habitat (A Paper From Hansen et al. Is Now Open For Discussion - 3).
As a result, the population here, one of southern Greenland’s major towns, has been halved to 1,500 in just a decade. Suicides are up.
So, if vegetation in your area begins to change, don't be alarmed, other species may move in:
In a paper published June 7 in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, researchers present evidence that over the past century, vegetation has been gradually moving toward the poles and up mountain slopes, where temperatures are cooler, as well as toward the equator, where rainfall is greater.(Agnotology: The Surge - 4). That is just the way it is sometimes.
Moreover, an estimated one-tenth to one-half of the land mass on Earth will be highly vulnerable to climate-related vegetation shifts by the end of this century ... according to the study.
The results came from a meta-analysis of hundreds of field studies and a spatial analysis of observed 20th century climate and projected 21st century vegetation.
The meta-analysis identified field studies that examined long-term vegetation shifts in which climate ... was the dominant influence. The researchers found 15 cases of biome shifts since the 18th century that are attributable to changes in temperature and precipitation.
Sometimes too much movement is required (Adaptation), and sometimes the amount of movement required is just right (A Savvy Ecocosmological Earth Calendar - 2).
The previous post in this series is here.
