New research from the University of Colorado-Boulder has established a link between a warming climate and extinction of a common mountain wildflower.
Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory near Crested Butte simulated a warmer, drier climate and found that wild jasmine could not adapt and survive. Their field site has a “warming meadow” that uses infrared radiators to warm certain areas in ways that mimic climate change.
Scientists raised the average soil temperature by three degrees and decreased the moisture in the soil by 20 percent. They also mimicked an earlier snowmelt date.
The study was published in the journal Science Advances.
