More Plant Species Responding to Global Warming Than Previously Thought

[OKIsItJustMe]

Last edited Thu May 24, 2012, 11:38 AM - Edit history (1)

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressreleases/more_plant_species_responding_to_global_warming_than_previously_thought/

[font face=Serif]May 21, 2012 | By Kim McDonald

[font size=5]More Plant Species Responding to Global Warming Than Previously Thought[/font]

[font size=4]Future warming may lead to dramatic changes in flowering for these species[/font]

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That’s the conclusion of a team of scientists, which included a UC San Diego biologist, that found that many plant species, which appear to not be affected by warmer spring temperatures, are in fact responding as much to warmer winters. The scientists detailed their findings in this week’s early online publication of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For years, scientists have accepted that certain species are flowering earlier each year due to changes in climatic conditions, but many species—varying around 30 percent, depending upon the region—appeared not to be affected. These species had been assumed to be stable—unresponsive to global warming and thus outside of concern for how they will change with increasing rates of climate change.

But the team of researchers, led by Benjamin Cook, a climate modeler at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, found that the apparently stable species are, in fact, unquestionably feeling the effects of rising temperatures throughout the year.

“Based on what we know from agriculture and plant physiology, we expect our results would be broadly applicable to many temperate regions where species are dormant in usually cold winters,” said Elizabeth Wolkovich, who co-authored the study while a postdoctoral fellow in biology at UC San Diego. “We expect that our results extend to many temperate habitats in Southern California, but we need more data for the best estimates and predictions of what future California springs will look like.”

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118364109

[kestrel91316]

1. Meanwhile, teh hoomans, not so much.......

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Well, I don’t know…

Clearly more humans are affected by Global Warming than previously thought they would be.

However, I would argue that more humans are reacting to Global Warming than you may think.

As the effects become clearer, I think more people are waking up to the threat. (Of course, I may be wrong.)