British wildlife at risk as climate change forces plants to flower a month early

Yet another depressing and extremely concerning article regarding the impact of climate change on the environment and biodiversity.

Sky News - British wildlife at risk as climate change forces plants to flower a month early, scientists warn

A new study has warned that some UK species are at risk of collapse as climate change forces plants to flower a month earlier on average.

Researchers analysed more than 400,000 observations of 406 plant species in a database with records dating back as far as the 18th century.

They found that the average first flowering date of the plants from 1987 to 2019 was a month earlier compared with the data for between 1753 to 1986.

Lead author of the study Professor Ulf Buntgen, from Cambridge University, said: "The results are truly alarming because of the ecological risks associated with earlier flowering times. When plants flower too early, a late frost can kill them - a phenomenon that most gardeners will have experienced at some point. But the even bigger risk is ecological mismatch. Plants, insects, birds and other wildlife have co-evolved to a point that their development is synchronised. A certain plant flowers, it attracts a particular type of insect, which attracts a particular type of bird, and so on. But if one component responds faster than the others, there's a risk that they'll be out of sync, which can lead species to collapse if they can't adapt quickly enough."

The many and varied devastating impacts of climate change continue to be documented on an increasingly regular basis and this is why the outcomes of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) were so disappointing, to put it mildly, to anyone and everyone who cares about the future of our planet, the human race and all the biodiversity that we co-exist with .... see here.

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