Oct 31, 2006 11:54 am US/Eastern
Climate Watch - Local Signs of a Warming Planet
Richard Primack & Abraham-Miller-Rushing, Plant Ecologists, Boston University
(WBZ)
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Kathleen Anderson carefully records her latest entry.
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A spring peeper perched on a leaf.
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A wood duck makes an early arrival.
The threat of global warming has become a hot topic. In fact, almost any extreme weather event seems to lend added credibility to a planet suffering from a fever. But it does not take a weather disaster to draw attention to a changing world. With patience and diligent observation over many years, the tale of our evolving climate can be teased out of the sights and sounds of nature in your own backyard.
Kathleen Anderson has lived on a farm in Middleboro for the past 56 years. As a "naturalist" interested in the plants and animals on her farm, Kathleen has carefully recorded the behavior of dozens of species of birds, frogs, butterflies and vegetation growing on her farm. When she spots the first bird of the spring season, the first flap of a butterfly, the first peep from a frog, she thoughtfully records it, year after year. Based on her records of nature at work, she has noticed that her farm comes to life earlier in the spring than in the past. Could a warmer planet be the cause?
Over the last 35 years, temperatures have increased in eastern Massachusetts by roughly 2°C (3.6°F). Scientists believe this temperature rise is due to the combined effects of global warming and increased urbanization in the Boston metro area. Using Kathleen's records, our research focused on 24 of the most common birds, plants, butterflies and amphibians on her farm. Of these species, 22 are now active earlier in the spring than they were just 30 years ago like the wood duck arriving 32 days earlier than in the past! In fact, with each 1ºC increase in late winter/early spring temperatures, red-winged blackbirds arrive 2.5 days earlier, goldthread plants flower 2.9 days earlier and spring peeper frogs call 3.7 days earlier. Kathleen's backyard observations provide some of the most convincing evidence to date that the behaviors of plants and animals are changing in step with a warming planet Earth.
Dr. Primack is a Professor of Plant Ecology and has been investigating the plants of Massachusetts since 1978. Dr. Primack and his graduate student, Abe Miller-Rushing, are now using historical data sets and their own current observations to study the effects of climate change on flowering times at Walden Pond.
Photo courtesy of Kathleen Anderson.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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