GLOBAL WARMIMG MOVED PLANTS NORTHWARD
by Sreeram
An increase in the planet’s temperature 55 million years ago
prompted major shifts in plant distribution ,researchers have reported.
A study of plant fossils from the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming shows the arrival of plants from warm southern areas, displacing those that had been growing there previously according to a research team led by Scott L Wing chairman of the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
Their findings a\re reported in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.
The group studied a period called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, when the planet warmed up over about 10,000 years, raising the average temperature by between 9 degrees and 18 degrees Fahrenheit . The warmth lasted for 80,000 to 120,000 years. The team reported that before and after the warm period plant fossils included such northern plants as relatives of dawn rewood, alder .sycamore, walnut and sassafras .But during the warm period fossils show the area supported different vegetation ,including members of the bean family and warmth-loving relatives of pointsettia, sumac and paw-paw.
The southern plants had spread 1,600 kilometers from the Gulf Coast to Wyoming, but disappeared when the climate cooled off. That warming was caused by an influx of carbon into the atmosphere, similar to current concerns about the potential cause of global warming.
UK MAY TRIP ON POOR CLIMATE CHANGE RECORD
Britain risks losing any international authority it has on climate change because of a poor track record in cutting its own greenhouse gas emissions,one of the country’s top scientists said on Thursday.
PM Tony Blair has sought to champion tackling climate change particularly under Britain’s presidency this year of the Group of Eight economic powers At a July summit,G8 nations agreed on measures to tackle global warming but set no targets, mainly due to resistance from the United States which rejects the Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientists predict global warming will put millions of lives at risk through rising sea levels, floods and droughts.
‘Sreeram’ is the pen name of the above abstract writer. His name in the professional field is V.Sree Rama Rao, B.E. ( Mech ), MIMA, M.I.E. is a Techno- commercial business consultant based at Mumbai the financial capital of India. He can be contacted on
e-mail : vsramarao1@rediffmail.com