How the Effects of Climate Change Impact Gardeners

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Photo By Fotolia/Rick Thornton
One of the effects of global warming is species mismatch. For example, the pied flycatcher now migrates at the wrong time relative to the availability of its insect prey, and as a result has experienced population declines of 90 percent.

Reposted with permission from Climate Nexus.

“Season Creep” and Its Impacts

As the planet warms, signs of spring are arriving sooner, while winters are becoming shorter and milder. This phenomenon is informally known as “season creep” in that the onset of spring is creeping earlier. The study of the timing of spring events is called phenology.

Season creep manifests in various ways. For example, flowers bloom earlier, including a week earlier on average for Washington’s famous cherry blossoms. Hardwood forests hold their green leaves 10 days longer. Spring snowmelts have shifted so that peak melt flow now arrives one to four weeks earlier. Growing seasons have lengthened by 10-20 days, and bird species are leaving earlier for their migrations.

Although much research is still underway, the signs point to a causal relationship between carbon dioxide, global warming, and the manifestations of season creep. In one study, natural variability explained only one-third the rate of “creep” in the arrival of spring. Likewise, decadal oscillations, or natural cycles of change, could not fully account for early streamflow, and researchers found leaf retention in hardwood forests was “consistent with other studies documenting measurable climate change effects.”

  • Published on Mar 18, 2013
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