May 15, 2007 5:44 pm US/Eastern
Thoreau Recordings Shed Light On Global Warming
by Mish Michaels
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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Henry David Thoreau was a naturalist who wandered the woods surrounding Walden Pond back in the mid 1800s.
CBS
Spring is in full bloom and according to two local researchers, flowers are now blossoming earlier than in the past. Using historical records from local naturalists like Henry David Thoreau, clues about our local climate are coming into focus.
"One attraction coming to the woods to live was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the spring come in."
The words of Henry David Thoreau -- a naturalist who wandered the woods surrounding Walden Pond back in the mid 1800s. His hope was to carefully record the march of the seasons. "Thoreau made extremely detailed measurements of when plants flowered in concord," said Dr. Richard Primack.
Primack and Dr. Abe Miller Rushing -- two Boston University ecologists -- have been recreating the work of Thoreau, recording plant flowering times in concord over the last few years.
"He made observations of over 600 species of different plants," said Rushing.
The two scientists have been doing the same. During their research, the two also discovered another local botanist, Alfred Homer, who was inspired by Thoreau and extended his record of plant flowering times in concord through the early 1900s.
Based on their comparison of these historical records and the flowering times they recorded over the last few years, clues about our warmer climate are evident. "Plants are now flowering about seven days earlier than they were than during Thoreau's time," said Primack.
These increases are driven completely by the warming that we have experienced in Boston.
"The temperatures here in Boston have warmed by about four degrees Fahrenheit over the past 150 years...in lock step with this the plants are flowering earlier," said Rushing.
These B.U. researchers plan to broaden their study by tapping into a wider network of local observations of spring flowering times.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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