Prof. Marta Kolanowska, scientist of the Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz (UŁ) researched how climate warming and human activity can affect the range of orchids. The results of her research have been published in the journal Scientific Reports belonging to Nature.

A research group with the participation of Prof. Kolanowska checked how the current and forecast climate changes can affect the range of the selected orchid. The researchers showed that the plant will react differently on each continent. The scientists researched an unusual species of orchids that grows in tropical and subtropical America, Africa and Asia.

In Asia, a warming climate will help orchids grow in new lands. In America and Africa, they will lose almost 70 percent of their current habitats. For rare species of orchids, this means extinction.

Scientists have identified over 27,000 orchid species worldwide. Many of them, especially tropical ones, grow on only one continent, or even only in one place in the world. That is a reason why they are so endangered, because a small change in climate conditions within a small region may mean the extinction of the entire species.