Climate change affects all 771 plant and lichen species listed in the US Endangered Species Act (1973), but there are few plans to directly address this threat.
Despite the risk, very few of these species have recovery plans that directly address climate change, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania (USA) published by Plos Climate.
The team headed by Amy Casandra Wrobleski, from the aforementioned university, indicated that the risk that climate change poses to threatened plants has not been systematically evaluated for more than a decade.
Therefore, they adapted existing assessment tools to examine the threat of the effect of climate change on wild animals and applied them to the 771 listed plant species.
The scientists assessed their degree of sensitivity to climate change, whether climate change was recognized as a threat to each species, and whether action was being taken.
All species are at least slightly threatened by climate change, and while acknowledging the threat is an important first step, direct action must be taken to ensure the recovery of many of these species, the team concludes.
The authors, cited by Plos Climate, urge that their findings be used to aid conservation planning for threatened plants and lichens, and to inform future recommendations on species listing and recovery planning.
