Warming increases the spread of an invasive thistle.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Global warming and shifted precipitation regimes increasingly affect species abundances and distributions worldwide. Despite a large literature on species' physiological, phenological, growth, and reproductive responses to such climate change, dispersal is rarely examined. Our study aims to test whether the dispersal ability of a non-native, wind-dispersed plant species is affected by climate change, and to quantify the ramifications for future invasion spread rates.

Methodology/principal findings

We experimentally increased temperature and precipitation in a two-cohort, factorial field study (n = 80). We found an overwhelming warming effect on plant life history: warming not only improved emergence, survival, and reproduction of the thistle Carduus nutans, but al

SUBMITTER: Zhang R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3126854 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature