HS Environment Research: Flowers bloom in Britain a month early – change since the 1980s has been rapid

Climate warming prolongs growing seasons and confuses ecosystems. In the UK, it has been observed that the plants are flowering a month earlier than in the past.

Today, on average, the local vegetation begins to wake up as early as mid-April, when in the past it was not possible to admire the flower bloom until May-June.

Turkimus appeared in a publication of the Royal Society of Science Proceedings of the Royal Society B series

In the study the recorded observations of the first flowering times from 1759 were examined. There were a total of 435,000 sightings across the British Isles.

Statistically, the change is clear, and it has happened very quickly since the 1980s. Flowering times are about a month earlier.

For example, in 2019, spring arrived 42 days earlier than in 1986. Likewise, the average daily high temperature in the spring winter in England has risen by a degree since the 1950s.

Researchers looked at 400 plant species. There are, of course, differences in flowering times between them.

The first to erupt are herbaceous plants such as blue anemones and white anemones. They wake up in England today, on average, 32 days earlier than before.

The trees and shrubs bloomed later, but even a couple of weeks ahead of time.

Although the early spring may feel comfortable, with detrimental consequences for nature that has not had time to adapt to rapid global warming.

In the spring, plants that bloom too early can be riveted, and ecosystems become unbalanced when the rhythm of the plants does not match that of pollinators and birds.

“Species could collapse if they don’t have time to adapt,” warns a professor at the University of Cambridge who led the study Ulf Büntgen research in the bulletin.

If global warming continues at the current rate, spring will arrive in Britain soon before February, Büntgen says.

Thermal The growing season has also lengthened in the Nordic countries and Finland. It refers to the period when the average daily temperature is permanently above five degrees.

In October Climate Dynamics A joint Nordic study published in the European Union shows that the start of the growing season in northern Europe has averaged 15 days between 1950 and 2019.

In some places, nature wakes up already a month early.

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