Thursday, April 08, 2010
Star of Persia, a.k.a. Allium cristophii (photo: Royal Horticultural Society)
Thanks to obsessive record-keeping by generations of British flower lovers, biologists have determined that plants in the United Kingdom are blooming earlier than at any time in the last 250 years. These researchers also have noticed a change in the onset of spring and summer as a result of global warming. The scientists examined more than 400 species and hundreds of thousands of flowering records and concluded plants have produced flowers earlier in the last 25 years than in any other period going back to the 1750s.
Another study published earlier this year found that spring in the UK now begins 11 days sooner than it did three decades ago. The change in spring, as well as summer patterns, could have drastic affects on animals, birds and fish that rely on flowering plants.
Stephen Thackeray, a biologist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Lancaster, told the Guardian: “Animals and birds time their reproduction to coincide with periods when there will be an abundance of food. If changes mean there is not enough food available then this could have negative consequences for their offspring.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Flowers Bloom Earlier as UK Warms (by Richard Black, BBC News)
A 250-Year Index of First Flowering Dates and Its Response to Temperature Changes (by Tatsuya Amano, Richard J. Smithers, Tim H. Sparks and William J. Sutherland, Proceedings of the Royal Society)
Earlier Springs Could Destroy Delicate Balance of UK Wildlife, Study Shows (by David Adam, Guardian)
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