University of Adelaide researchers have discovered that recent climate change is causing leaves of some Australian plants to narrow in size.
The study, which is the first of its kind in the world, highlights that plant species are already responding to changes in climate. The results are published online today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
Researchers analysed leaves from herbarium specimens of Narrow-leaf Hopbush (Dodonaea viscosa subsp. angustissima) dating from the 1880s to the present. The study focused on specimens from South Australia’s Flinders Ranges.
The analysis revealed a 2mm decrease in leaf width (within a total range of 1-9mm) over 127 years across the region. Between 1950 and 2005, there has been a 1.2ºC increase in maximum temperatures in South Australia but little change in rainfall in the Flinders Ranges.
The text of the article actually contradicts the sensational headline — and the whole thing is just trolling for research funding. The journal Nature has fallen very far indeed.
Which leads me to ask when will research funders start to demand research results and ask questions about what the money was used for?
I thought Darwin said this kind of this was natural and good. It really means that climate change will not be as devastating to plants and animals as the proponents claim. We already have research from the Galapagos Islands that show changes like those in the article do occur in very short periods naturally. So really, the study just helps show that Darwin’s ideas on natural selection were correct. Which is good–the earth adapts.