The Bright Side of Global Warming
leafy spurge
It seems that nothing will escape the ravages of global warming, not even weeds. Nothing else can stop them, but maybe accidentally, mankind has figured out a way to heat up our world so much that even those plants that will survive anywhere and in large maddening numbers will finally be vanquished.
Oh, I am just being glib.
But we do need some good science news from time to time, and I aim to please. Researchers from Princeton have realized that global warming may help the fight against invasive species in the Western United States. Areas that once welcomed any and all plants may not be as inviting to pests like cheatgrass, yellow
tamarisk
But before we get too excited, remember a door doesn’t close without a window opening. And the same could be said for this seemingly good news. Hotter and drier temperatures in the American West may hinder some species from taking over, but in other parts of the world, the increasing temps will only serve to make previous unattractive areas a paradise to other invasive species.
The researchers assessed the relationship between climate change and the distribution of five prominent invasive plants in the western United States - known colloquially as the “kudzus of the West” - cheatgrass; spotted knapweed; yellow starthistle; tamarisk; and leafy spurge. Such plants are defined as invasive because they were brought into this country from other lands and now dominate and alter ecosystems in ways that threaten native wildlife, agriculture, and ranching. All have greatly expanded their ranges in recent decades in the western U.S., causing millions of dollars in damage to farmlands and rangelands. Invasive plants are increasingly expensive to control, and it is widely believed that global warming will make the problem worse.
But Bradley and her co-authors find that global warming may also reduce the competitiveness of some invasive plants if conditions become climatically unsuitable to the weeds, “creating opportunities for restoration in areas currently dominated by intractable invasive species,” according to the study.
The five species were selected in part because they represent the most problematic plants in the western U.S. The study authors created “bioclimatic envelope models,” wherein the authors identified where the invasive plant species occurred, and identified critical climate variables such as precipitation patterns and temperature patterns that are associated with the presence of the invasive plants under investigation. The authors then determined what combined set of climate variables best described the distribution of these weeds, and mapped all of the places in the U.S. where these climate conditions occur.
Developing such models is important because scientists can use them to assess how changing climate conditions might affect the distributions of invasive plants. Maps of how invasion risk is likely to change with global warming are also important for land managers designing long-term protocols for fighting invasive plants.–WWS at Princeton news release
And maybe it is just me, but I feel the need to point out that if areas of the American West are going to be becoming less and less hospitable to invasive species, won’t those same areas equally be as inhospitable to us?
However, the bright side of this changing climate pattern paradigm is that maybe department of natural resources people will be able to get a leg up on some really, pesky invasive species. And if the time is right, it will only be our own fault for not taking advantage of this opportunity.
global warming, climate change, invasive species
