Because endemic species - native species not found outside the
state - make up nearly half of all California's native plants, a
changing climate will have a major impact on the state's
unparalleled plant diversity, the researchers warn. Photo © 2001
Tony Morosco(Scott Loarie and David Ackerly/UC Berkeley) The
researchers caution that their study can't reliably predict the
fate of specific species. However, the trend is clear: The
researchers project that, in response to rising temperatures and
altered rainfall, many plants could move northward and toward
the coast, following the shifts in their preferred climate,
while others, primarily in the southern part of the state and in
Baja California, may move up mountains into cool but highly
vulnerable refugia Coast redwoods may range farther north, for
example, while California oaks could disappear from central
California in favor of cooler weather in the Klamath Mountains
along the California-Oregon border. Many plants may no longer be
able to survive in the nort