Actually, Plants Aren’t Interested In Your Neuroses

Global Warming’s Impact On Plants Greater Than Predicted

For over two decades, researchers have been conducting experiments that are designed to mimic the effects of rising temperatures on the rates at which plants first begin to leaf and flower each spring. However, a new study has found that that these models are inaccurate, and that the actual impact of global warming on plants may cause the flowering and leafing of plants to occur up to eight times faster than the models predicted.

For many years, researchers assumed that plants would respond in much the same way in experiments that simulate global warming as they would to changes in temperature occurring in the natural environment. To test this assumption, Dr Elizabeth Wolkovich, of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and her colleagues compared the data on the timing of the flowering and leafing of plants found in observational studies to data based on warming experiments.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112528250/

 

About Tony Heller

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9 Responses to Actually, Plants Aren’t Interested In Your Neuroses

  1. Latitude says:

    What exactly does eight times faster mean??
    flowering in January?

  2. gregole says:

    Here’s the money quote – ““I guess we will never get to perfectly match nature, but I am hopeful as scientists we can do much, much better, given funding resources,” Wolkovich told BBC News.”
    Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/1aR5L)

    Sorry, but their so-called study fails to impress – more like something you would see at a junior high school science fair.

    Conclusion: Warmer damper temperatures lead to bigger plants.

    Duh.

  3. Andy DC says:

    So the tulips this year bloomed on April 1 rather than May 1. Did the world end?

  4. I think the point is that their experiment versus reality resulted in nearly one order of magnitude difference in results. Which probably suggests that if they had just used a random number generator, the results produced by this method would have been more accurate.

  5. lanceap says:

    well, i keep a spreadsheet of all my flower dates year after year, when they emerge, flower etc….and until this year, it was getting later and later…however, this year, we are about 2 weeks ahead of schedule on everything, but, guess what?! it was a warm winter and warm spring, go figure!!! CO2 targeted us this year…

    • miked1947 says:

      Natural changes in long term weather patterns. That includes little hicc-ups either warmer than, so called, average or cooler. Long time ago I noticed weather changes, then I noticed, from historic records, it has always done that and we can not know the future to any certainty, besides the fact that we will experience changes in weather patterns.

  6. tckev says:

    Actually, Plants Aren’t Interested In Your Neuroses?
    I’m sorry but some European royals have found otherwise –
    England’s Prince Charles said “I happily talk to the plants and trees, and listen to them. I think it’s absolutely crucial,” the prince says. “Everything I’ve done here, it’s like almost with your children. Every tree has a meaning for me.”
    He is also a fervent AGWer.
    http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/prince-charles-eavesdrops-tourists-speaks-plants/story?id=11679656#.T6URW3KvZo8

    • miked1947 says:

      Charles is interested in the plants neuroses, the plants do not care about his.
      I talked to my plants all the time and when asked they answered that they do not give a shit.
      I think it is plant apathy. They do not even care what happens to their fellow plants. How many plants do you see joining forces to save the Crab Grass form being killed out by uncaring humans.
      How many plants do you see taking up to save the trees being killed by invasive plant species we imported such as Kudzu.
      We need an expanded field of plant psychoanalysts to help these poor lost plants regain their self assurance and sense of community with other plants.

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