Joshua Tree National Park without Joshua trees? A study by scientists at the University of California, Riverside, says that if the state and country continue with “business-as-usual” concerning climate change, it could result in an almost complete elimination of Joshua trees from the park. The researchers say that severe droughts are likely to become the norm. They add that Joshua trees have been migrating to higher elevations where it’s cooler and wetter and where new trees have a better chance of growing. The scientists studied three scenarios that went through the end of the century, with differing levels of temperature, rainfall, and reductions in carbon emission, and all came to the same conclusion: there would be “large-scale reduction in the suitable areas [for Joshua trees] at end-of-century.” If the weather patterns and carbon emissions don’t change, the scenario indicated Joshua Trees would be almost completely eliminated.
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.2763
