Review: plant responses to climate change

Need to catch up on the latest climate change science?  A new review by Christmas et al. looks at climate change adaptation, focusing on both the responses of and potential impacts on plants (particularly trees).  They provide an in-depth assessment of recent literature that summarizes recent ideas and predictions, and explore the conservation implications for each potential adaptation.  The review focuses on three aspects of plant response to climate change:

Constraints to climate adaptation, both for migration and in situ adaptation.  Constraints to migration include the presence of suitable space to migrate into, sufficient time to migrate, a connected landscape, and the presence or migration of co-dependent species into the new range.  Constraints to in situ adaptation include genetic variation and new mutations for evolution, rate of climate change, genetic connectivity, and levels of trait plasticity.

Key methods for understanding climate change responses and informing future conservation strategies.  General methods include the use of space-for-time substitutions, environmental gradients, and phenotypic clines.  Genomic methods are available to search for signatures of selection and local adaptation.

Conservation implications and potential strategies for overcoming adaptation constraints.  Potential ways to mitigate climate change responses include biodiversity corridors, assisted migration, in situ conservation and protection of refugia, and ex situ conservation and seed banks.