Bamboo pointer to climate change impact on Giant Pandas

Tag : bamboo

A joint study by the University of York and the Royal BotanicGarden in Edinburgh with Sichuan University and the KumingInstitute of Botany focused on the effect of climate change on thebamboos which are the Giant Pandas’ principal food.
The researchers discovered that while some types of bamboo reducedin range due to global warming, others actually increased. Thefindings will provide important information to help to safeguardthe animal’s future.
Professor Steve Blackmore, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens inEdinburgh, said: "Pandas spend 14 hours a day eating, andbamboo forms 99 per cent of their diet, so they are completelyreliant on the right bamboo species being present in order tosurvive."
Edinburgh researchers gathered data on bamboo distribution fromboth herbarium records and in the Pandas’ home range inSichuan province. The data was analysed by the University of Yorkteam using a special computer programme called YOGA – YorkGenetic Algorithm – developed by Dr Colin McClean, in theUniversity’s Environment Department.
Dr McClean said: "The programme makes a bioclimatic envelopefor each bamboo species. We can then move this envelope into futureclimate scenarios to see how the bamboos might be affected byclimate change. YOGA is particularly useful because it can producegood results on relatively small data sets."
Director of the Centre for Ecology, Law and Policy, Dr Jon Lovett,who led the work in York, added: "The results wereparticularly striking in that some of the key food plants werebadly affected, whereas others actually increased their rangesunder global warming. So the impacts of climate change are complex,favouring some species while making others rarer.
"Fostering this sort of adaptation seems to be the mostimportant policy approach to adopt now, as global use of fossilfuels, the main driver of climate change, shows little sign ofslowing down. We should also remember that though the Giant Pandacan help us focus attention on climate change, it is not the onlyspecies that will be affected."
ENDS