{"669077":{"#nid":"669077","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Fossils Are Tackling One of Conservation\u2019s Toughest Questions","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFossils aren\u2019t only useful for learning about the past. They can also suggest how plants and animals might respond to future events \u2014 most pressingly,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/knowablemagazine.org\/article\/food-environment\/2022\/lifetime-climate-change\u0022\u003Eclimate change\u003C\/a\u003E. For example,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.mcguire.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EJenny McGuire\u003C\/a\u003E, assistant professor and conservation paleobiologist in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/eas.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E, and her colleagues studied fossilized pollen grains to see how 16 important plant taxa from North America responded to climate change over the past 18,000 years. Did the plants shift their ranges to follow their preferred climate, the researchers wondered, or did they stay put and make the best of things as the climate changed around them?\u0026nbsp;Twelve of the 16 taxa\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2201946119\u0022\u003Echanged their geographic distribution to maintain similar climate niches\u003C\/a\u003E, the researchers found \u2014 even in periods when the climate was changing rapidly.\u0026nbsp;(This story was first published in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/knowablemagazine.org\/article\/food-environment\/2023\/conservation-paleobiology-restoring-ecosystems\u0022\u003EKnowable Magazine\u003C\/a\u003E.)\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFossils aren\u2019t only useful for learning about the past. They can also suggest how plants and animals might respond to future events \u2014 most pressingly,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/knowablemagazine.org\/article\/food-environment\/2022\/lifetime-climate-change\u0022\u003Eclimate change\u003C\/a\u003E. For example,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.mcguire.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EJenny McGuire\u003C\/a\u003E, assistant professor and conservation paleobiologist in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/eas.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E, and her colleagues studied fossilized pollen grains to see how 16 important plant taxa from North America responded to climate change over the past 18,000 years. Did the plants shift their ranges to follow their preferred climate, the researchers wondered, or did they stay put and make the best of things as the climate changed around them?\u0026nbsp;Twelve of the 16 taxa\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2201946119\u0022\u003Echanged their geographic distribution to maintain similar climate niches\u003C\/a\u003E, the researchers found \u2014 even in periods when the climate was changing rapidly. (This story was first published in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/knowablemagazine.org\/article\/food-environment\/2023\/conservation-paleobiology-restoring-ecosystems\u0022\u003EKnowable Magazine\u003C\/a\u003E.)\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"34434","created_gmt":"2023-08-21 16:16:56","changed_gmt":"2023-08-21 16:30:40","author":"Renay San Miguel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"The Atlantic ","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/science\/archive\/2023\/08\/fossil-climate-change-conservation-paleobiology\/674998\/","dateline":{"date":"2023-08-12T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2023-08-12T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"364801","name":"EAS"}],"categories":[{"id":"154","name":"Environment"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"166926","name":"School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences"},{"id":"168746","name":"Jenny McGuire"},{"id":"192975","name":"conservation paleobiology"},{"id":"168745","name":"fossils"},{"id":"831","name":"climate change"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}