390-million-year-old ‘living fossil’ could die due to climate change

By James Gamble via SWNS

A 390 million-year-old "living fossil" which outlived the dinosaurs and four mass extinction events may finally be killed off by climate change, researchers have warned.

A new decade-long study on the moss Takakia, which lives in some of the most remote areas of the planet, crowned it as one of the fastest-evolving species ever known.

The impressive slow-growing moss, found in the Himalayas, the U.S. and Japan, has continually survived on Earth by rapidly adapting to changes in its habitat.

But the ancient lifeform has become more and more difficult to find in recent years after being exposed to higher UV radiation than ever before.

Now scientists predict the seemingly indestructible moss will finally succumb to climate change and die out within the next hundred years.

Takakia typically confines itself to the icy cliffs of the Tibetan Plateau - the world's highest and largest plateau above sea level - and can also be found in certain areas of the U.S. and Japan.

Over a period of ten years, researchers from Germany and China made 18 expeditions to reach Takakia's 4,000-metre-high home in the Himalayas.

The mountain range, harboring the tallest peaks in the world, did not even exist for the first hundred million years of the moss's life.

When the mountain range finally rose it dramatically altered its habitat and forced it to adapt quickly - which it successfully did.

The team climbed some of these peaks to sequence the DNA of what is one of the fastest-evolving species known to man.

The difficulty of humans to reach the habitats of the moss is a testament to its status as one of the world's longest-surviving species.

Some students who made the perilous trips to find Takakia even had to abandon their missions after suffering from severe altitude sickness.

Describing the nature of their expeditions, Dr. Ralf Reski, a plant biotechnologist at the University of Freiburg in southwestern Germany, explained: "We set out to describe and analyze a living fossil.

"The idea was to go as deep as possible into the history of the first land plants to see what they can tell us about evolution.

"We found that Takakia is currently the genome with the highest number of fast-evolving genes.

"It's very active on the genetic level."

Plant biologist and co-expedition leader Dr. Ruoyang Hu, from Capital Normal University in the Chinese capital of Beijing, added: "In the Himalayas, you can experience four seasons within a day.

"At the foot of the mountain, it is sunny and clear.

"When you get to the halfway point, there is always a light rain—it feels like you’re walking in a cloud.

"And when you get to the top, it snows and it’s very cold."

Only half of the road is accessible by car, fellow Captial Normal plant biologist Dr. Xuedong Li explained.

"We had to be cautious and vigilant to stay safe at this altitude," he said.

"Three students got high-altitude sickness in our decade’s research.

"But thanks to our Tibetan guides, we transferred them to a lower altitude in time to get them medical care."

The team found Takakia's extensive genome - the genetic information of an organism - had evolved over several generations of selection to excel at fixing broken DNA and recovering from damage caused by, amongst other things, ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

Dr. Yikun He, another author and fellow plant biologist at Capital Normal University, explained that Takakia plants were covered with heavy snow for around eight months each year, and subjected to high-intensity UV radiation for the remaining four months.

In response, the plants adapted the ability to grow in different locations using a 'flexible branching' system.

"As a result," Prof He said, "this continuous branching forms a network structure and a very sturdy population structure, which can effectively resist the invasion of heavy snowstorms."

The team also studied Takakia’s environment using satellite weather data, equipment which studied the plant’s 'microclimate' and timelapse cameras that observed larger environmental changes occurring in the greater ecosystem.

They found the climate was steadily warming and that glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau were rapidly melting.

They also saw that the moss is now experiencing higher UV radiation than ever before - which lab experiments showed is enough to kill other plants adapted to harsh environments.

Sadly, the researchers also noted that despite Takakia's past success in rapid adaptation to survive, experts are finding it increasingly difficult to find.

The team found that populations in Tibet had decreased by around 1.6 percent each year during the course of their study, published in the journal Cell.

The authors say suitable condition regions for Takakia will shrink to between just 1,000 to 1,500 square kilometers across the globe by the end of this century and do not predict the robust moss is likely to survive another hundred years.

To help improve its chances, however, the researchers propose educating the public about lesser-known species like Takakia and an international effort to pool resources so experts can continue studying the moss and taking measures to protect it, such as cultivating it in a lab.

"Plant scientists cannot sit idly by," Dr. He said.

"We are attempting to multiply some plants in the laboratory and then transplant them to our experimental sites in Tibet.

"After five years of continuous observation, it has been found that some transplanted plants can survive and thrive, which may be the dawn of the recovery - or at least a postponement of extinction - of Takakia populations."

Dr. He added that organisms like Takakia required saving from climate change just as animals do.

He said: "People have a responsibility to play a more active role in biodiversity conservation and restoration.

"We need to not only focus on those charming animals such as the panda, polar bear, and the white dolphin but also pay close attention to these rare and little species.

"They are more vulnerable under climate change, such as our moss Takakia."

Dr. Reski said though Takakia might not survive climate change other mosses will - even if humans fail to.

"We humans like to think that we are on top of evolution,” he said.

"But the dinosaurs came and went, and so might humans, if we are not careful with our planet.

"Takakia may die because of climate change, but the other mosses will survive, even if we humans cannot.

"You can learn a lot from the simplest plants about the history of this planet, and maybe the future."