NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO • January 18, 2022
It's a central ecological bargain: animals and birds get delicious fruit to eat and in return, plant seeds get a ride somewhere else. Climate change is making that movement especially critical. As temperatures rise, many plants are likely to be in places that are too hot or too dry for their survival, and they may need to migrate to new habitats. But just when plants need it most, their gut-based seed delivery system is disappearing. Animal populations are declining due to hunting, habitat loss and extinction. That's reduced the ability of plants to move with climate change by 60% says ecologist Evan Fricke. "It highlights that there's this tight link between the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis."