Semi-natural
grassland plots at Buxton Climate Change Impacts Lab
(August 27, 2015) A
study by the University of Liverpool has found that the genetic diversity of
wild plant species could be altered rapidly by anthropogenic climate change.
Scientists studied the genetic responses of different wild
plant species, located in a natural grassland ecosystem near Buxton, to a
variety of simulated climate change treatments—including drought, watering, and
warming—over a 15-year period.
Analysis of DNA markers in the plants revealed that the
climate change treatments had altered the genetic composition of the plant
populations. The results also indicated a process of evolutionary change in one
of the study species, suggesting that genetic diversity may be able to buffer
plants against the harmful effects of climate change, allowing an “evolutionary
rescue.”
VIDEO – How to
create a drought: automated rain shelters in operation at
Buxton Climate
Change Impacts Lab (time lapse)
Dr Raj Whitlock, from the University’s Institute of
Integrative Biology, said: “Climate change is expected to present a significant
challenge to the persistence of many populations of wild plant species.
“Our understanding of the potential for such responses to
climate change is still limited, and there have been very few experimental
tests carried out within intact ecosystems.
“We found that experimental climate change treatments can
modify the genetic structure of plant populations within 15 years, which is
very fast, in evolutionary terms.
“Evolutionary flexibility within the plant populations at
Buxton may help to explain why the grassland there has proven resistant to
simulated environmental change.”
Dr Raj Whitlock
collecting leaf samples for genetic analysis
The experiment took place at the Buxton Climate Change
Impacts Laboratory (BCCIL) in Derbyshire, where intact species-rich limestone
grassland has been subjected to experimentally manipulated climate treatments
since 1993 (involving summer drought, increased temperature, and enhanced
rainfall).