Summary: Due to the effect of global warming, winters became a lot warmer than before. Because of this change, more plant species are blooming earlier than when they usually were bloom. Of course, there are other species of plant (usually at 30%, differs depending on the region) that seems not to be unresponsive to the drastic weather change. Yet, some studies show that these "unresponsive plants" are also drastically affected by the weather. The problem is, some plants do not know when to be ready for winter cold because the winter is not cold enough to give the "que", therefor, some plants have late arrival of spring blooming or not even go through the process at all. 2/3 of the "stable" plants are found to be going through this confusion. Though it poses to be not much of a change currently but it will make a drastic change in plants during the future. Accoring to Elizabeth Wolkovich, who works at the University of Columbia, “The key for future research will be understanding how we can predict what species and regions are most at risk of radical changes in their flowering due to warmer winters.”
Reflection: It is saddening to hear the other affect of global warming that never came to my mind. I remember the winter in our region to be very warm too considering how I felt hot in some occasions during Febuary! My only concern during those time was lack of snow and possbility of bugs that survived through the winter, but I never had a second thought about flower blooming problem. Though I don't remember our area having problems with flowers blooming, if the weather gets any warmer, I think we will see problems by then. Global warming is changing the enviorment so much and it is saddening to think that us turning off lights and all won't help much because the indusrty is using up much more of the energy than us indivisuals can imagine. I think I'll continue on with turing lights off consistantly because it will still have affects to the green house gas amount being released.
Expansion:
1)What other effects could be posed by the global warming?
2)What could be ways that would satisfy the industry and the enviornment.
3)If flowers do not bloom due to the this problem, what other problems would surface caused by the lack of flowers?
Reflection:
ReplyDeleteWould this mean the apple and the fruit trees also do not know when to bloom? Global warming could potentially hurt the produce too. If that would happen then not only would the prices become so much higher for fruits and veggies but they may also become hard to get. As Gernwoo said, I also never thought global warming could pose a threat for flower blooming. I hope we can predict what species of flowers and which regions are most at risk at the blooming issue, so that we can research more about the warm winters and how we will be affected.
Expansion:
Answering Gernwoo’s last question:
Q: If flowers do not bloom due to this problem, what other problems would surface caused by the lack of flowers?
A: Well, many issues could occur due to lack of flowers. One could be lack of bees. If we do not have any flowers in the area, you will not find many bees. Bees help pollinate flowers, which makes flowers grow. With no bees, we will not have as much pollination. Another issue is a decrease of oxygen. Of course, this problem would only happen if there were a giant decrease of flowers throughout the whole world. There are many more issues, and some issues are still unknown. We need to try and fix this problem by planting certain flowers in certain areas, before the difficulties start.
Reflection:
ReplyDeleteI used to actually think that global warming was helping plants because they could grow for a longer period of time if it was warmer out but after reading this, I see that it is just the opposite. I also agree with Nasrine that this could raise the price of produce because it would be harder to get from the trees they come from. Usually the first thing that comes to mind when I think about global warming is polar ice caps melting but I never really thought that it could do anything to flowers blooming. This is just one of the many issues that come along with global warming.
Expansion:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120409103253.htm
I found an article that is kind of similar to this one. It is about how initially, scientists thought that global warming was actually helping plants. During the first year or so that the plants experienced the climate change, they grew very well, but each year after that the condition of the plants was gradually getting worse. I think that this is similar in that both articles focus on that global warming is not helping the plants entirely.
Reflection:
ReplyDeleteI noticed the same exact thing with the flowers in my house. My perennials, which grow every year, started blooming in late February/early March. Unfortunalely, the weather kept on changeing, so the flowers did not last very long. I completely agree with Nasrine in that there may be an effect on the produce markets from global warming. It's just one more reason global warming has to be stopped. I wonder if at some point we will have to grow produce and flowers in special greenhouses in order to grow them when we need them? Probably not--or at least not any time soon--but if this issue becomes so bad then maybe that will have to be what we resort to.
Expansion:
Here's a site that ofers another prediction as to what will become of plants from global warming. The CS Monitor says that some plants, like the red maple tree, will have to migrate to northern areas in order to survive. Reflecting on that, maybe then produce will have to be grown in different areas, and may make the economies of different counrties and states change depending on what they gain or lose. Here is the link:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Bright-Green/2009/0702/how-will-global-warming-affect-plants