Will plants survive climate change? The 'Great Dying' reveals clues about their resilience.

Plants can't easily pick up and move when environmental conditions get rough, so they've evolved strategies to weather harsh conditions in place. That could help some plants survive in the face of a warming climate.

About 251 million years ago, volcanic eruptions wiped out most life on Earth. For about a million years, the Siberian Traps in Russia spewed huge clouds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, leading to the most severe extinction event in our planet's history.

Equatorial temperatures spiked, making much of the land too hot for life. Meanwhile, the oceans became acidic and most of the creatures in them suffocated from lack of oxygen.…