In the United Kingdom, spring flowers are blooming a month earlier than a few decades ago due to the warming climate, a new study reports.
Climate change, which is largely caused by fossil-fuel emissions, brings late fall and early spring to many parts of the world. The new study, published today (February 2) in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, warns that if the trend holds, it could lead to profound negative impacts on wildlife and agriculture—and potential species collapse.
“The results are truly alarming, because of the ecological risks associated with earlier flowering times,” Ulf Büntgen, a geographer at the University of Cambridge, tells The Guardian. “When plants flower too early, a late frost can kill them—a phenomenon that most gardeners will have experienced at some point.”
Flowering plants go dormant in the winter to protect themselves from the winter chill, Büntgen tells CNN. But an early spring ...
