Warming Could Propel Rapid Evolution In Weed Species - Field Mustard Mutated In Just 7 Years

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.

EDIT

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2007-01-08T222535Z_01_N08387651_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT-EVOLUTION-DC.XML

This is hard proof of evolution via natural selection. Suck on it fundies.

. . . and that way, you won't have to bother your brain with any of that troublesome "thinking".

I don't doubt that warming is causing some undesirable vegetation changes because I have noticed that English ivy near my property in the N.C. mountains was very slow growing up until the past 5 to 10 years when our winters have been much milder and summers hotter. It is growing by feet instead of just inches each year now and the leaves are much larger turning it into a fast growing enlarging monster, damaging trees, choking out native vegetation and taking over the landscape in the same way that Kudzu has done. I never planted any ivy on my property but am having to deal with an ivy invasion along my property lines and border trees by ivy planted decades ago by neighbors who never expected it do become such a pest. The ground ivy is also a breeding ground for mosquitoes since it retains its leaves throughout the winter and moisture gets trapped underneath.

Doesn't the cold winters prevent killer bees from migrating north?

Pitiful.

I think the weeds will outlast us.