Check out how researchers are using data from World Flora Online to understand why some plants are successful and which might be the most vulnerable to climate change.
What makes some plant groups so successful? Researchers are using WFO data to find out! Researchers from Trinity College Dublin are looking at “big plant genera,” which comprise more than 500 species, to understand why certain plant groups dominate Earth. While there are nearly 14,000 known genera of flowering plants, one in four flowering plants are in just 87 genera. For their research, scientists repeated an analysis published 20 years ago and found that big genera are getting bigger. The team now aims to understand why, with a goal of finding out what flowering plants are the greatest risk from climate change. This research wouldn’t be possible without WFO, an international, collaborative initiative!
