Exotic plants are responding faster to climate change than natives in California study

The ubiquitous red clover

It seems that exotic plants are the hare to the native’s tortoise in the race for shifting climates. In a study by Wolf et al (2016) in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, the researchers studied native and exotic plant records in California to see where they were growing in response to elevation. They found that “15% of all taxa in California have ranges that have shifted upward over the past century. There are significant differences between range shifts of taxa with different naturalization statuses: 12% of endemic taxa show significant upwards range shifts, while a greater proportion (27%) of introduced taxa have shifted upward.” This is saying that introduced plants are moving upward to cooler temperatures faster than native plants. This is not surprising as many exotics, especially invasives, are adaptable to a wider range of environmental conditions than many natives. It reminds me of a story written in the 1950s by anthropologist Loren Eiseley, where he discusses taking plant seeds from the low elevations of mountains and scattering them up top, and vice versa with the upland plants. As he wrote in the story, “one never knows.”