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Warming could spur "evolution explosion": study (fast-growing weeds evolve/adapt to climate change)
Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 1/9/07 | Deborah Zabarenko

Posted on 01/09/2007 6:33:54 PM PST by NormsRevenge

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fast-growing weeds have evolved over a few generations to adapt to climate change, which could signal the start of an "evolution explosion" in response to global warming, scientists reported on Monday.

This means that the weeds will likely keep up with any attempts to develop crops that can adapt to global warming, said Arthur Weis, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine.

But some long-lived species -- like the venerated California redwood tree, with a life-span of hundreds of years -- will not have the capacity to adapt so quickly, because their life cycles are so long, Weis said in a telephone interview.

The quick-growing weedy plant known as field mustard showed the ability to change reproductive patterns over a period of just seven years, Weis said.

"If you take a climate shift, such as we've had here in southern California, in a very few number of generations you can get a change in ecologically important traits that can allow these fast-growing weedy species to hang on and actually do well despite the change in environments," he said.

Weis and his colleagues cultivated two sets of mustard seeds in a greenhouse: one set collected in 1997, just before a five-year drought, and a second set collected in 2004, after the drought ended.

The plants were divided into three groups, with each getting different amounts of water, ranging from drought-dry to soggy. In every case, the post-drought generation of plants flowered earlier, meaning the plants could produce seeds before the soil dried out. Late-bloomers would wither before any seeds were produced in a drought year.

SPEEDED-UP LIFE-CYCLE

How fast a change is this, on the evolutionary timetable? Weis calculated that this represents a 16 percent acceleration of the mustard plants' life-cycle over seven generations.

"That's a pretty big change in age of maturation," he said.

Asked to hypothetically compare this to evolutionary changes in people, Weis offered what he termed a very crude analogy: if humans evolved at the same rate as the mustard plants in the experiment, the average onset of the age of reproduction in humans would slip from 16 years to 13 1/2 in seven generations.

Weis is spearheading a project to collect, dry and freeze seeds from around North America so they can be studied 50 years from now. He figures that global warming will prompt lots of evolutionary changes and scientists will want to have evidence of plants before the changes occurred. The effort is called Project Baseline.

"If global climate change is coming, and it is, we have this huge unplanned experiment in evolutionary biology facing us," Weis said. "Climate change could lead to an evolution explosion. ... This gives scientists an unprecedented opportunity to look at the actual nuts and bolts of evolutionary change."

The idea is for scientists in the mid-21st century to go back to the same locations where plants are being collected and note the differences between the plants from the different time periods.

Research by Weis and his team was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: climatechange; evolution; globalwarming; study; weeds
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1 posted on 01/09/2007 6:33:56 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge

They're relentless. I'm almost ready to concede to their junk science just to shut them up.


2 posted on 01/09/2007 6:36:15 PM PST by Jaysun (I've never paid for sex in my life. And that's really pissed off a lot of prostitutes.)
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To: NormsRevenge
If weeds can adapt to climate change, then crops should be able to do the same.
Weeds will be no more of a nuisance than they are now. So what??
3 posted on 01/09/2007 6:36:53 PM PST by o_zarkman44
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To: NormsRevenge

YEC INTREP


4 posted on 01/09/2007 6:41:59 PM PST by LiteKeeper (Beware the secularization of America; the Islamization of Eurabia)
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To: o_zarkman44
Since evolution is entirely under the control of The Intelligent Designer everything will be ok. Insah Allah.


5 posted on 01/09/2007 6:42:57 PM PST by Jeff Gordon (History convinces me that bad government results from too much government. - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: NormsRevenge

This is nothing new. I get tons of weeds in my front yard when it's hot and dry.


6 posted on 01/09/2007 6:43:28 PM PST by KStorm (They're waiting for a show of weakness. And I'm not talkin' about terrorists.)
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To: NormsRevenge
the average onset of the age of reproduction in humans would slip from 16 years to 13 1/2 in seven generations.

Sounds like a social experiment to me...

7 posted on 01/09/2007 6:45:53 PM PST by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com†|Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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To: Jaysun
But some long-lived species -- like the venerated California redwood tree, with a life-span of hundreds of years -- will not have the capacity to adapt so quickly, because their life cycles are so long, Weis said in a telephone interview.

Fortunately the redwood trees will outlive these idiots, and continue to thrive long after this stupid theory is dust.

Damn... what idiots these people are.

8 posted on 01/09/2007 6:46:01 PM PST by Northern Yankee ( Stay The Course!)
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To: NormsRevenge

9 posted on 01/09/2007 6:48:16 PM PST by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s......you weren't really there)
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To: Northern Yankee
Fortunately the redwood trees will outlive these idiots, and continue to thrive long after this stupid theory is dust.

Damn... what idiots these people are.


Those redwoods are so old. I've always said that we should cut half of them down now and plant new ones before they just drop dead of old age. Because by not doing so we're robbing future generations of their chance to behold the magnificent treasures.

How's that for mamby-pamby feel good talk? Why not use their own absurd arguments. At least we'd get to use the damn things. As it is they're just something for hippies to chain themselves to.
10 posted on 01/09/2007 6:54:20 PM PST by Jaysun (I've never paid for sex in my life. And that's really pissed off a lot of prostitutes.)
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To: NormsRevenge

This sounds like another scary global warming story wrapped in evolution wrapping paper.

All the redwoods are going to be replaced by ugly weeds.

It won't happen, but since none of us will be alive to throw this back in his face, his mission has been accomplished.


11 posted on 01/09/2007 6:56:18 PM PST by Dog Gone
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To: NormsRevenge

Round-up should solve most of the weed problems.


12 posted on 01/09/2007 7:12:09 PM PST by SouthTexas (May you have a blessed and prosperous New Year.)
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To: SouthTexas

I'm shocked they didn't include abortion, gay marriage or stem cells in their conclusions.

At the least, blame Bush.


13 posted on 01/09/2007 7:15:27 PM PST by EQAndyBuzz ("Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted." Lenin)
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To: NormsRevenge

Make ethanol out of the weeds.


14 posted on 01/09/2007 7:16:39 PM PST by Retired Chemist
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To: GeneralStorm

I know all about weeds. I get a million of 'em in the backyard every summer (when its hot, imagine that?)


15 posted on 01/09/2007 7:38:14 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: Jaysun
Those redwoods are so old

An old adage says that: "A weed is any plant that you either don't want, or one that you don't want in that particular place"

16 posted on 01/09/2007 7:47:03 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: Mr_Moonlight
An old adage says that: "A weed is any plant that you either don't want, or one that you don't want in that particular place"

I know. My neighbor raised a big stink when I pulled some weeds, or "rose bushes" as some like to call them, from his yard last year.
17 posted on 01/09/2007 7:53:15 PM PST by Jaysun (I've never paid for sex in my life. And that's really pissed off a lot of prostitutes.)
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To: NormsRevenge
Egad! They're right! In my own bean field! PORCUPINE EGGS!!


18 posted on 01/09/2007 8:22:38 PM PST by labette (Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made ...)
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To: NormsRevenge

Morphological and/or physiological changes facilitated by the plant species' existing suite of genetic material in response to a change in the environment will be equated, by evolutionists, to evolutionary development of a totally new species; just as the response of the peppered moth to altered living conditions, while remaining at all times the same species, is touted as evidence that new species are generated through evolution.


19 posted on 01/09/2007 9:12:26 PM PST by Elsiejay (\)
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To: NormsRevenge

Minorities and Women weeds hardest hit.


20 posted on 01/09/2007 9:15:15 PM PST by sgtyork (Prove to us that you can enforce the borders first)
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