In the United Kingdom, plants are blooming more and more often well in advance: it is yet another "side effect" of the climate crisis, which could have a very heavy impact on the country's ecosystems
Spring breaks out earlier and earlier in the UK and that's not good news at all. If until a few decades ago, in fact, most of the flowers bloomed between May and June, now the flowering takes place even with one month in advance. This is revealed by a new study published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The cause of this early flowering? It is not difficult to imagine it. The phenomenon is one of the many side effects of the climate crisis (which is also delaying the arrival of autumn and the fall of leaves from trees).
The study carried out by a group of researchers fromUniversity of Cambridge considered 406 different species of flowering plants (including the common primrose and the favagello buttercup) by analyzing the flowering periods from 1753 to 2019. From monitoring carried out in various areas of the United Kingdom - from southern England to Ireland of the North - it emerged that the flowering of plants in recent years has suffered an advance of about a month compared to 80s. In 2019, for example, the first blooms were recorded as early as April 2, a clear consequence of the increase in global temperatures.
@Proceedings of the Royal Society B
This early flowering has intensified since the second half of the 80s. “The trend observed in an early flowering period over the past three decades is most marked in herbs,” the study reads.
Because of #ClimateChange, plants in the UK are flowering a month earlier on average, which could have consequences for wildlife, agriculture and gardeners: https://t.co/3kjBoEDgru@CamUniGeography @WoodlandTrust
— Cambridge University (@Cambridge_Uni) February 2, 2022
The impact of early flowering on ecosystems
Worrying experts is the fact that very early blooms could have a deleterious impact on insects, birds and entire ecosystems, in which these plant species play a key role.
The results are truly alarming, due to the ecological risks associated with early flowering times - said Professor Ulf Büntgen, of the Cambridge Department of Geography and lead author of the study - “When plants bloom too early, a late frost can kill them. , a phenomenon that most gardeners will have experienced sooner or later. But the even greater risk is ecological mismatch. Plants, insects, birds, and other wildlife have evolved to the point of synchronization in their stages of development. A particular plant blooms, attracts a particular type of insect, which attracts a particular type of bird, and so on. But if one component responds faster than the others, there is a risk that they are out of sync, which can lead to species collapse if they can't adapt quickly enough.
According to Professor Büntgen and his team, if global temperatures continue to rise at the current rate, spring in the UK could be as early as February before long. And this would trigger a dangerous domino effect on all ecosystems, which cannot be underestimated.
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Fonte: University of Cambridge /Proceedings of the Royal Society B
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