Vegetation Response to Climate Change
- Use this video lecture which gives an overview of how vegetation responds to climate change in terms of phenotypic plasticity, range shifts, phenology, and population changes.
- Use the video lecture, 'Lecture 4c- Vegetation Response to Climate Change', to summarise plant responses to climate change by discussing their impacts on native vegetation in Arizona.
- Reinforce your understanding about observed climate factors that could affect vegetation growth such as increased CO2 levels, higher global temperatures and changing precipitation patterns.
- Explore how plants respond to such environmental perturbations in the short and long term by showing phenotypic plasticity, acclimation and adaptation.
- Disucss how these climatic factors nudge vegetation growth in other regions than where previously found and therefore, cause a 'range shift'.
- Finally, discuss how climate change can cause changes in phenology and affect percentages of different species in a population by influencing plant growth and development.
A Coursera lecture by Dr Lawrence Venable, University of Arizona