How will life on Earth cope with all the changes the planet is going through? The world has experienced some dramatic shifts in the last century, shifts that will almost certainly continue in the century to come. As carbon dioxide and temperatures rise, the growing season lengthens and cold snaps diminish, and precipitation becomes more variable, SERC scientists are tracking changes in plants, animals, microbes and entire ecosystems.
Forests and wetlands remain some of the most critical ecosystems to preserve. Since 1987, plant ecologists in the Global Change Research Wetland have manipulated CO2, temperature, nitrogen and sea-level rise to forecast how wetland plants may grow in the world of 2100. At the nearby TEMPEST experiment, they're periodically flooding a forest to see how the trees can cope with sea level rise and more extreme rainfall. In an experimental warming garden, scientists are investigating whether sudden heat waves can trigger wetland plants to emit more methane, a greenhouse gas even more powerful than carbon dioxide. Forest ecologists have also discovered trees growing faster in the last 25 years than they have in the last two centuries.
Mass migration is another side effect of climate change. In the coastal wetlands of Florida, tropical mangroves are moving north. Winter cold snaps are becoming less frequent, giving tropical plants an opening to move into the temperate zones. Invasive species are also moving into warmer regions, a phenomenon known as “Caribbean creep.” The projects below show more ways SERC ecologists are uncovering the planet’s reaction to climate change.
