Are Middle Eastern Plants Climate Change Deniers?

It seems that humans aren't the only ones capable of ignoring climate change. Middle Eastern plants, too, are denying its existence, as new research shows the region's vegetation is defiant and able to withstand more than seven years without water.

Already, the Middle East is an arid region, with a relatively small amount of water available for every person living there, let alone the plants. And future estimates indicate that they can't expect even less rain in the coming years.

This not only could jeopardize ecosystems, but threaten the survival of important local species as well.

But lucky for Middle East vegetation, they are resilient.

Described in the journal Nature Communications, an area in Israel rich in plant species was subjected to artificially low rainfall - as predicted for the future - for a period of over nine years. The researchers also examined the effects of higher-than-average rainfall. Four specific arid ecosystems were chosen, ranging from extreme desert - with 90 millimeters (mm) of precipitation in a year - to much damper Mediterranean conditions of 800 mm of rain annually.

Surprisingly, the studied ecosystems barely noticed the change in rainfall. Despite the fact that they were subjected to over nine years of either extreme dryness or massive amounts of rain, there was little effect on the diversity or composition of species, their concentration, or biomass.

"This means we need to revisit the popular theory that arid regions are particularly sensitive to climate change," lead researcher Katja Tielbörger said in a statement.

The reason for the region's resistance to such extreme conditions, representative of the effects of climate change, is because they lied in the vegetation's "comfort zone." These ecosystems naturally experience various levels of precipitation, so they were amazingly comfortable with even 30 percent less annual rainfall.

"Our results are not meant to trivialize the effects of climate change," Tielbörger stresses. "But they are important in helping us invest in adaptation to climate change in the right place."