In our weekly environmental newsletter, we delve into current trends and solutions driving us towards a more sustainable future. I’m Jill, and today, let’s explore the U.K.’s yearly plant hunt, now a vital tool for climate change research.
This week’s highlights include the early blooming of flowers in the U.K., the emergence of solar-powered electric vehicles, and a funeral home’s tree-planting initiative that has blossomed into an award-winning forest.
Citizen science has unveiled valuable insights into climate change impacts in the U.K. Data gathered on New Year’s Day by thousands of volunteers across the British Isles reveals a significant increase in native plant species blooming compared to past decades, linked to rising temperatures. For every 1-degree Celsius rise in temperature at a location, an average of 2.5 more species bloom on January 1st, as indicated by the U.K.’s Met Office using a decade’s worth of plant hunt data. This citizen-powered research is set to provide a more comprehensive report in the near future.
The New Year Plant Hunt, now in its 15th year, originated from the curiosity of two botanists monitoring shifting blooming patterns in the U.K. The event has evolved into a massive initiative with close to 3,700 participants exploring nature in their communities at the start of each year. Traditionally, textbooks on phenology suggested around 10 native plant species should be in bloom across the U.K. and Ireland on January 1st. However, this year recorded a remarkable 663 species in bloom, with over half being native species.
Louise Marsh from the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland emphasizes the significance of this data in understanding the broader impact on wildlife, such as invertebrates and pollinators. The event encourages public participation, with resources provided by the Botanical Society for accurate data collection and review by experts, offering invaluable observations that satellites and drones cannot match.
This method of citizen observation to study climate impacts mirrors a similar study conducted in Canada in 2013. It demonstrated that plant flowering in Canada advances approximately nine days per degree Celsius, showcasing the potential for collective citizen science efforts to further our understanding of climate change effects on nature.
The message from these events in the British Isles is clear: everyone, regardless of expertise, can contribute to understanding and preserving our environment.