Relationship between Global Warming and Species Richness of Vascular Plants

We analyzed climatological and geographical variables in 90 countries from the Northern Hemisphere to determine the significant variability of plant species richness as it relates to broad-scale levels of global warming. This variability was quantified by the parameters of temperature and precipitation. Of the 27 temperature variables and 13 precipitation variables, 6 variables had negative influences on species richness while 5 variables had positive impacts. When we estimated the effect of higher temperatures, we found that a 1 or 2℃ rise in global warming produced an increase in species richness of 1.6 or 3.2%, respectively.