Plants flower faster than climate change models predict
Scientific models are failing to accurately predict the impact
of global warming on plants, says a new report. Researchers
found in long-term studies that some are flowering up to eight
times faster than models anticipate. The authors say that poor
study design and a lack of investment in experiments partly
account for the difference. They suggest that spring flowering
and leafing will continue to advance at the rate of 5 to 6 days
per year for every degree celsius of warming. The results are
published in the journal Nature. For more than 20 years,
scientists have been carrying out experiments to mimic the
impacts of rising temperatures on the first leafing and
flowering of plant species around the world. End Quote This
Rutishauser Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research The
bottom line is that the impacts might be bigger than we have
believed until now” Researchers had assumed that plants would
respond in essentially the same way to experimental war