1 . The rapid pace of global warming and its effects on habitats raise the question of whether species are able to keep up so that they remain in suitable living conditions. Some animals can move fast to adjust to a swiftly changing climate. Plants, being less mobile, rely on means such as seed dispersal(传播) by animals, wind or water to move to new areas, but this redistribution typically occurs within one kilometre of the original plant.
When the climate in a plant’s usual range becomes hotter than it can tolerate, it must find new, cooler areas that might lie many kilometres away. One explanation for long-distance seed dispersal is through transport by migratory (迁徙的) birds. Such birds swallow seeds when eating fruit and can move them tens or hundreds of kilometres outside the range of a plant species.
Gonzáiez-Vary and colleagues report how plants might be able to keep pace with rapid climate change with the help of migratory birds. The authors analysed the fruiting times of plants, patterns of bird migration and the interactions between fruit-eating birds and fleshy-fruited plants across Europe. Plants with fleshy fruits were chosen for this study because most of their seed transport is by migratory birds, and because fleshy-fruited plants are an important part of the woody-plant community in Europe. The common approach until now has been to predict plant dispersal using models fitted to abiotic (非生物的) factors such as the current climate. Gonzáiez-Vary instead analysed an impressive data set of 949 different seed-dispersal interactions between bird and plant communities, together with data on entire fruiting times and migratory patterns of birds across Europe. The researchers also analysed DNA traces from bird wastes to identify the plants and birds responsible for seed dispersal.
1. How do species adapt to climate changes when it’s too hot?
| A．All animals will move away across great distanced. |
| B．Some plants depend on migratory birds to carry seeds. |
| C．Some plants depend on animals, wind or water to move. |
| D．Plants’ seeds disperse to cooler places of several kilometres away. |
2. Why did researchers mainly study fleshy-fruited plants?
| A．Most of these can’t fit rapid climate change |
| B．Migratory birds like making nests in them |
| C．Migratory birds transport their seeds. |
| D．They are favoured by most birds. |
3. Why does the author mention “fleshy fruits” and “fruiting times” in paragraph 3?
| A．To explain relations between fruit plants and migratory birds. |
| B．To clarify the reason why birds migrate in fruiting times. |
| C．To present a fact that migratory bird eats flesh fruits. |
| D．To show that fruits depend on migratory birds. |
4. What is the text mainly about?
| A．The advantage of fruit plants. |
| B．The destination of the bird migration. |
| C．The adaptation of fruit plants to the climate change. |
| D．The influence of climate change on plants and animals. |
