Isla Earth Radio

If you can't stand the heat...hang in there? That's what some species are doing in response to climate change. It might sound obvious. But until recently, common wisdom held that climate change prompts native species to migrate, or die. Now, instead, scientists are finding that some species not only adapt to change, but thrive. The star example is humble grassland vegetation in northern Britain. Researchers at Sheffield University studied slow-growing herbs and shrubs there, some more than 100 years old. They marked off plots of the grassland, and over the course of 13 years, manipulated their environment every which way they could: Fake summer floods, drought, nutrient shortagesthey even buried heating cables to simulate winter warming. By the end of the experiment, the grassland should have altered dramatically. But the plants were unruffled. They hadn't died off, and other plants didn't take their place. Why? No one's sure. The plants might be slow to react, or ma