One sign of a northward movement of plants and animals: In 2006, the Arbor Day Foundation moved Northern Iowa from a solid 4 to a 5 on its hardiness zone map.

Listen to this week’s radio segment on how climate change affects plant and animal movement.

People aren’t the only ones adapting to climate change – plants and animals are too.

They are on the move.

This is the Iowa Environmental Focus.

As temperatures grow warmer, some plants and animals in our hemisphere are heading north, according to a report by UNI researchers Laura Jackson and Peter Berendzen.

Of about 1,600 plants and animals recently studied, 41 percent moved to cooler regions. The average movement was about 4 miles north or about 20 feet higher in elevation every ten years. Very few species moved south.

Some of those could be heading to Iowa.

In 2006, the Arbor Day Foundation moved Northern Iowa from a solid 4 to a 5 on its hardiness zone map. For gardeners, that means that more types of trees can survive our winters.

This is just one of many interesting shifts we’re seeing as our climate changes.

For more information and to read the report, visit IowaEnvironmentalFocus.org.

I’m Jerry Schnoor from the UI Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research.

Thank You.