[Pollinator] Global Warming Rushes Timing of Spring

Wed Mar 19 11:22:28 PDT 2008

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/WireStory?id=4481367&page=1

 <http://abcnews.go.com> ABC News

Global Warming Rushes Timing of Spring

Spring Keeps Coming Earlier for Birds, Bees, Trees, and Sneezes Because of
Global Warming

By SETH BORENSTEIN

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON 

The capital's famous cherry trees are primed to burst out in a perfect pink
peak about the end of this month. Thirty years ago, the trees usually waited
to bloom till around April 5.

In central California, the first of the field skipper sachem, a drab little
butterfly, was fluttering about on March 12. Just 25 years ago, that
creature predictably emerged there anywhere from mid-April to mid-May.

And sneezes are coming earlier in Philadelphia. On March 9, when allergist
Dr. Donald Dvorin set up his monitor, maple pollen was already heavy in the
air. Less than two decades ago, that pollen couldn't be measured until late
April.

Pollen is bursting. Critters are stirring. Buds are swelling. Biologists are
worrying.

"The alarm clock that all the plants and animals are listening to is running
too fast," Stanford University biologist Terry Root said.

Blame global warming.

The fingerprints of man-made climate change are evident in seasonal timing
changes for thousands of species on Earth, according to dozens of studies
and last year's authoritative report by the Nobel Prize-winning
international climate scientists. More than 30 scientists told The
Associated Press how global warming is affecting plants and animals at
springtime across the country, in nearly every state.

What's happening is so noticeable that scientists can track it from space.
Satellites measuring when land turns green found that spring "green-up" is
arriving eight hours earlier every year on average since 1982 north of the
Mason-Dixon line. In much of Florida and southern Texas and Louisiana, the
satellites show spring coming a tad later, and bizarrely, in a complicated
way, global warming can explain that too, the scientists said.

Biological timing is called phenology. Biological spring, which this year
begins at 1:48 a.m. EDT Thursday, is based on the tilt of the Earth as it
circles the sun. The federal government and some university scientists are
so alarmed by the changes that last fall they created a National Phenology
Network at the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor these changes.

The idea, said biologist and network director Jake Weltzin, is "to better
understand the changes, and more important what do they mean? How does it
affect humankind?"

There are winners, losers and lots of unknowns when global warming messes
with natural timing. People may appreciate the smaller heating bills from
shorter winters, the longer growing season and maybe even better tasting
wines from some early grape harvests. But biologists also foresee big
problems.

The changes could push some species to extinction. That's because certain
plants and animals are dependent on each other for food and shelter. If the
plants bloom or bear fruit before animals return or surface from
hibernation, the critters could starve. Also, plants that bud too early can
still be whacked by a late freeze.

The young of tree swallows - which in upstate New York are laying eggs nine
days earlier than in the 1960s - often starve in those last gasp cold snaps
because insects stop flying in the cold, ornithologists said. University of
Maryland biology professor David Inouye noticed an unusually early February
robin in his neighborhood this year and noted, "Sometimes the early bird is
the one that's killed by the winter storm."

The checkerspot butterfly disappeared from Stanford's Jasper Ridge preserve
because shifts in rainfall patterns changed the timing of plants on which it
develops. When the plant dries out too early, the caterpillars die, said
Notre Dame biology professor Jessica Hellmann.

"It's an early warning sign in that it's an additional onslaught that a lot
of our threatened species can't handle," Hellmann said.

It's not easy on some people either. A controlled federal field study shows
that warmer temperatures and increased carbon dioxide cause earlier, longer
and stronger allergy seasons.

"For wind-pollinated plants, it's probably the strongest signal we have yet
of climate change," said University of Massachusetts professor of
aerobiology Christine Rogers. "It's a huge health impact. Seventeen percent
of the American population is allergic to pollen."

While some plants and animals use the amount of sunlight to figure out when
it is spring, others base it on heat building in their tissues, much like a
roasting turkey with a pop-up thermometer. Around the world, those internal
thermometers are going to "pop" earlier than they once did.

This past winter's weather could send a mixed message. Globally, it was the
coolest December through February since 2001 and a year of heavy snowfall.
Despite that, it was still warmer than average for the 20th century.

Phenology data go back to the 14th century for harvest of wine grapes in
France. There is a change in the timing of fall, but the change is biggest
in spring. In the 1980s there was a sudden, big leap forward in spring
blooming, scientists noticed. And spring keeps coming earlier at an
accelerating rate.

Unlike sea ice in the Arctic, the way climate change is tinkering with the
natural timing of day-to-day life is concrete and local. People can
experience it with all five senses:

- You can see the trees and bushes blooming earlier. A photo of Lowell
Cemetery, in Lowell, Mass., taken May 30, 1868, shows bare limbs. But the
same scene photographed May 30, 2005, by Boston University biology professor
Richard Primack shows them in full spring greenery.

- You can smell the lilacs and honeysuckle. In the West they are coming out
two to four days earlier each decade over more than half a century,
according to a 2001 study.

- You can hear it in the birds. Scientists in Gothic, Colo., have watched
the first robin of spring arrive earlier each year in that mountain ghost
town, marching forward from April 9 in 1981 to March 14 last year. This
year, heavy snows may keep the birds away until April.

- You can feel it in your nose from increased allergies. Spring airborne
pollen is being released about 20 hours earlier every year, according to a
Swiss study that looked at common allergies since 1979.

- You can even taste it in the honey. Bees, which sample many plants, are
producing their peak amount of honey weeks earlier. The nectar is coming
from different plants now, which means noticeably different honey - at least
in Highland, Md., where Wayne Esaias has been monitoring honey production
since 1992. Instead of the rich, red, earthy tulip poplar honey that used to
be prevalent, bees are producing lighter, fruitier black locust honey.
Esaias, a NASA oceanographer as well as beekeeper, says global warming is a
factor.

In Washington, seven of the last 20 Cherry Blossom Festivals have started
after peak bloom. This year will be close, the National Park Service
predicts. Last year, Knoxville's dogwood blooms came and went before the
city's dogwood festival started. Boston's Arnold Arboretum permanently
rescheduled Lilac Sunday to a May date eight days earlier than it once was.

Even western wildfires have a timing connection to global warming and are
coming earlier. An early spring generally means the plants that fuel fires
are drier, producing nastier fire seasons, said University of Arizona
geology professor Steve Yool. It's such a good correlation that Weltzin, the
phenology network director, is talking about using real-time lilac data to
predict upcoming fire seasons. Lilacs, which are found in most parts of the
country, offer some of the broadest climate overview data going back to the
1950s.

This year, though, it's the early red maple that's creating buzz, as well as
sniffles. A New Jersey conservationist posted an urgent message on a biology
listserv on Feb. 1 about the early blooming. A 2001 study found that since
1970, that tree is blossoming on average at least 19 days earlier in
Washington, D.C.

Such changes have "implications for the animals that are dependent on this
plant," Weltzin said, as he stood beneath a blooming red maple in late
February. By the time the animals arrive, "the flowers may already be done
for the year." The animals may have to find a new food source.

"It's all a part of life," Weltzin said. "Timing is everything."

---

On the Net:

National Phenology Network: http://www.usanpn.org/ 

IPCC report on phenological changes:

http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg2/ar4-wg2-chapter1.pdf 

National Park Service on cherry blossoms:

http://www.nps.gov/nama/planyourvisit/cherry-blossom-bloom.htm 

University of California at Davis butterfly changes:

http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/education/stat2/data 

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee lilac data: http://www.uwm.edu/mds/gcb
<http://www.uwm.edu/mds/gcb_2006.html> -2006.html 

Copyright C 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

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