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Research from the University of Utah shows that one shrub, the brittlebush, is adapting, and showing a remarkable ability to respond to increased temperature and aridity. The research is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was funded by the National Science Foundation.
"We were able to directly relate changes in plant ecophysiology to changing climate over a relatively short timescale," says study lead author and laboratory technician Avery Driscoll. "This shows us that desert shrubs can and do acclimate to changing environmental conditions."
Forty years in the desert
Data for this study came from two long-term research sites in the remote deserts of the American Southwest -- one in Death Valley and the other near Oatman, Arizona, both with an area of a few hundred square meters. The sites were established in the early 1980s by U distinguished professor of biology Jim Ehleringer, who recognized both the value of long-term observations, and the appeal of traveling somewhere warm during Salt Lake City's cold months. Every spring for nearly 40 years, Ehleringer and members of his lab have visited the research sites to survey the vegetation and collect samples of plants for later analysis.
In 2020, a scaled-down and postponed survey trip still went forward. "Easy to distance when working in the wide-open of the Mojave," tweeted co-author Darren Sandquist.
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