Research

Conservation and Hybridization in a Time of Global Change

Conservation and Hybridization in a Time of Global Change

Over the past few centuries, human activities have driven a number of changes to the earth’s ecosystems, some of which have resulted in the collapse breaking down of reproductive barriers between species long considered to be separate, thus leading to the formation of hybrid organisms. In this article, I review the current literature on ways in which invasive species and climate change drive hybridization events in plants and how these events impact both the species directly involved directly and the larger ecosystems in which they live. I then explore examine some of the implications that these events have for species conservation and argue for the importance of developing a flexible research and policy framework for responding to these events when they happen.