* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Nantucket Dance Festival opens July 8 – The Inquirer and Mirror

    Nantucket Dance Festival Launches with Thrilling Performances Beginning July 8

    A Secret Society, Ritualistic Killings, and a Century-Old Curse Netflix and YRF Entertainment’s ‘Mandala Murders’ Premieres July 25 – About Netflix

    A Secret Society, Ritualistic Killings, and a Century-Old Curse: Dive into the Chilling World of ‘Mandala Murders’ Premiering July 25

    Susquehanna Raises Penn Entertainment Inc. (PENN) Price Target. – Yahoo Finance

    Susquehanna Raises Price Target for Penn Entertainment Inc. (PENN)

    George Lopez is coming to Spokane – KXLY.com

    George Lopez is coming to Spokane – KXLY.com

    Netflix unveils Dallas immersive venue for fans of hit shows like ‘Squid Game,’ ‘Stranger Things’ – Houston Chronicle

    Step Inside Netflix’s New Dallas Immersive Experience Featuring Hits Like ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Stranger Things

    ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’: Civic Players bring ‘Young Frankenstein’ to life – Yahoo

    Civic Players Deliver a Hilarious and Unforgettable Performance of ‘Young Frankenstein

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Inspira Technologies Secures Landmark $22.5M Deal: Major Revenue Breakthrough After FDA Clearance – Stock Titan

    Inspira Technologies Secures Landmark $22.5M Deal: Major Revenue Breakthrough After FDA Clearance – Stock Titan

    Meiwu Technology Company Limited and Shenzhen Zhinuo – GlobeNewswire

    Meiwu Technology Company Limited and Shenzhen Zhinuo – GlobeNewswire

    Owls inspire new revolutionary noise reduction technology – KTEN

    Owls inspire new revolutionary noise reduction technology – KTEN

    New center coming to Mizzou will focus on energy research and technology – Columbia Missourian

    Mizzou Launches Innovative New Center Dedicated to Energy Research and Technology

    Mirrors in space and underwater curtains: can technology buy us enough time to save the Arctic ice caps? – The Guardian

    Can Technology Like Space Mirrors and Underwater Curtains Buy Us Time to Save the Arctic Ice Caps?

    Naples restaurant owner prepares for hurricane season with new flood technology – Fox4Now.com

    Naples restaurant owner prepares for hurricane season with new flood technology – Fox4Now.com

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Nantucket Dance Festival opens July 8 – The Inquirer and Mirror

    Nantucket Dance Festival Launches with Thrilling Performances Beginning July 8

    A Secret Society, Ritualistic Killings, and a Century-Old Curse Netflix and YRF Entertainment’s ‘Mandala Murders’ Premieres July 25 – About Netflix

    A Secret Society, Ritualistic Killings, and a Century-Old Curse: Dive into the Chilling World of ‘Mandala Murders’ Premiering July 25

    Susquehanna Raises Penn Entertainment Inc. (PENN) Price Target. – Yahoo Finance

    Susquehanna Raises Price Target for Penn Entertainment Inc. (PENN)

    George Lopez is coming to Spokane – KXLY.com

    George Lopez is coming to Spokane – KXLY.com

    Netflix unveils Dallas immersive venue for fans of hit shows like ‘Squid Game,’ ‘Stranger Things’ – Houston Chronicle

    Step Inside Netflix’s New Dallas Immersive Experience Featuring Hits Like ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Stranger Things

    ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’: Civic Players bring ‘Young Frankenstein’ to life – Yahoo

    Civic Players Deliver a Hilarious and Unforgettable Performance of ‘Young Frankenstein

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Inspira Technologies Secures Landmark $22.5M Deal: Major Revenue Breakthrough After FDA Clearance – Stock Titan

    Inspira Technologies Secures Landmark $22.5M Deal: Major Revenue Breakthrough After FDA Clearance – Stock Titan

    Meiwu Technology Company Limited and Shenzhen Zhinuo – GlobeNewswire

    Meiwu Technology Company Limited and Shenzhen Zhinuo – GlobeNewswire

    Owls inspire new revolutionary noise reduction technology – KTEN

    Owls inspire new revolutionary noise reduction technology – KTEN

    New center coming to Mizzou will focus on energy research and technology – Columbia Missourian

    Mizzou Launches Innovative New Center Dedicated to Energy Research and Technology

    Mirrors in space and underwater curtains: can technology buy us enough time to save the Arctic ice caps? – The Guardian

    Can Technology Like Space Mirrors and Underwater Curtains Buy Us Time to Save the Arctic Ice Caps?

    Naples restaurant owner prepares for hurricane season with new flood technology – Fox4Now.com

    Naples restaurant owner prepares for hurricane season with new flood technology – Fox4Now.com

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

Plants are flowering earlier than ever—here’s how they sense the seasons

March 4, 2024
in Science
Plants are flowering earlier than ever—here’s how they sense the seasons
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

lotus flower

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Hedgerows in mid-February might have traditionally appeared white with snow; this year the white was the work of blackthorn blossoms—a harbinger of spring. Although a welcome sign after a wet and gloomy winter, the early flowering brings unease for experienced season watchers. Has this plant always flowered in mid-February, I wondered, or is something changing?

Fortunately, the science of recording and understanding seasonal events, phenology, has a long history in Britain. Robert Marsham, an 18th-century naturalist, kept records of the appearance of the flowers, birds and insects in his Norfolk village as far back as 1736. Marsham’s descendants continued the recording until 1958. The Woodland Trust maintains the tradition with Nature’s Calendar, a scheme in which members of the public are invited to record various seasonal events.

Detailed analysis of almost half a million plant records by scientists in 2022 showed that when all species were considered together the average flowering time in the UK had advanced by a month over the last 40 years. There was variation between species. Hawthorn, the common hedgerow plant, is generally flowering 13 days earlier than it did in the early 1980s while the flowers of the horse chestnut tree appear ten days earlier.

The climate has warmed rapidly since the 1980s. By flowering earlier, plants recognize that winters are becoming shorter and milder. They sense the days getting warmer and alter their spring development in a manner akin to humans feeling warmth on their skin and so stepping out with fewer layers of clothing. The precise mechanisms for detecting these cues differ between plants and animals, but both are responding to the climate as it changes.

Detecting light and heat without eyes and skin

Plants detect the shortening days of autumn with a pigment called phytochrome that is particularly sensitive to wavelengths in the red region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The longer autumn nights alter the quality of this red light. While this subtle shift escapes humans (our eyes are not sensitive to this part of the spectrum) a plant can detect this transition and start to change.

Just as the autumn can engineer a drop in the level of the hormone serotonin in our blood, a plant that has sensed winter’s approach will increase the production of a hormone called abscisic acid. This has multiple effects. In deciduous trees, twigs stop growing and develop tough winter buds capable of surviving frost and snow and leaves fall off.

Growth in spring is determined by similar triggers of light length and temperature, but temperature typically has the more significant role. If plants only paid attention to light, they’d run the risk of starting growth when fatal frosts are still a threat or of missing good growing time in mild early spring days. Temperature detection determines when spring flowers appear. This is why global heating is evident in the earlier appearance of these flowers.

It isn’t fully understood how plants detect temperature. Some of it may be due to a growth-stalling hormone in its cells breaking down when the air falls below a certain temperature, which in turn allows a growth hormone to increase.

While humans have nerves in their skin to detect temperature, plants probably rely on pigments, though the mechanism isn’t fully understood. Heat is part of the same electromagnetic spectrum that phytochrome is sensitive to, so possibly this pigment is involved. Whatever mechanisms are responsible for initiating growth, temperature also determines how fast plants grow.

Flowers and pollinators out of sync

Insect pollinators like bees must synchronize their life cycles so that they are on the wing when the blossoms on which they feed emerge. The timing of their emergence from winter is also determined by the effects of temperature and day length and mediated by hormones.

Evolution working on many generations of pollinators has generated a tight link between the emergence of flowers and that of their pollinators. If the appearance of flowers and pollinators isn’t synchronized, the insects have no nectar and the plants aren’t fertilized.

A similar link exists between the emergence of leaves and the insect herbivores that graze on them. The rapidity of climate change and slight differences in how the two groups respond risk breaking this synchrony with serious consequences for both sides.

A large study by German scientists looking at when flowers and their pollinators emerged between 1980 and 2020 found a complex picture. Both responded to climate change with earlier flowering and appearances, but the plants had made a greater shift.

There was variation between insect groups, bees and butterflies had shifted in synchrony with the plants, but this wasn’t observed in hoverflies. There was also variation between species of these insects.

Even when plants and their dependent insects change timings in synchrony, the next stage of the food chain may not be so flexible. Oak leaves are fed upon by the oak moth caterpillar. This, in turn, is the primary food of the chicks of birds such as blue tits and pied flycatchers link text. Chicks have hatched at roughly the same time, while oak leaves and caterpillars have appeared earlier and so far remain in synchrony. But for how long?

Blackthorn blossoms remain a welcome relief from winter and a sign that spring is on its way. But they are also a sign of climate change: an unfolding experiment on the timing and synchrony of plants and animals—and the intricate food chains that they are part of.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.The Conversation

Citation:
Plants are flowering earlier than ever—here’s how they sense the seasons (2024, March 3)
retrieved 4 March 2024
from https://phys.org/news/2024-03-earlier-seasons.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Phys.org – https://phys.org/news/2024-03-earlier-seasons.html

Tags: Floweringplantsscience
Previous Post

The top 3 adventures in The Florida Keys & Key West

Next Post

The world’s business and finance sectors can do much more to reverse deforestation—here’s the data to prove it

Inspira Technologies Secures Landmark $22.5M Deal: Major Revenue Breakthrough After FDA Clearance – Stock Titan

Inspira Technologies Secures Landmark $22.5M Deal: Major Revenue Breakthrough After FDA Clearance – Stock Titan

July 2, 2025
Diamondbacks ban fan who interfered with apparent would-be Giants HR for rest of season, citing ‘multiple offenses’ – Yahoo Sports

Diamondbacks ban fan who interfered with apparent would-be Giants HR for rest of season, citing ‘multiple offenses’ – Yahoo Sports

July 2, 2025
Late Paleolithic whale bone tools reveal human and whale ecology in the Bay of Biscay – Nature

Ancient Whale Bone Tools Reveal Secrets of Human and Whale Life in the Bay of Biscay

July 2, 2025
Exploring three theories of consciousness. – Psychology Today

Unveiling the Mysteries: Exploring Three Fascinating Theories of Consciousness

July 2, 2025
MIT student wins first-ever Stephen Hawking Junior Medal for Science Communication – MIT News

MIT student wins first-ever Stephen Hawking Junior Medal for Science Communication – MIT News

July 2, 2025
Here’s what your morning routine really says about you – New York Post

What Your Morning Routine Says About Who You Really Are

July 2, 2025
David Muir, Diane Sawyer, Charlie Gibson honor ‘World News Tonight’ stage manager – MSN

David Muir, Diane Sawyer, Charlie Gibson honor ‘World News Tonight’ stage manager – MSN

July 2, 2025
Amid Russian economy warnings, Lavrov says NATO’s increased defense spending will lead to ‘collapse’ of alliance – The Kyiv Independent

Lavrov Warns Soaring NATO Defense Budgets May Spark Alliance Collapse

July 2, 2025
Column: The new book ‘Sick and Dirty’ examines the not-so-hidden queerness of classic Hollywood – Yahoo

Uncovering the Bold Queerness of Classic Hollywood in the New Book ‘Sick and Dirty

July 2, 2025

In Good Health: Vaccines, Menopause, And Cardiovascular Disease : 1A – NPR

July 2, 2025

Categories

Archives

July 2025
MTWTFSS
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031 
« Jun    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (702)
  • Economy (727)
  • Entertainment (21,615)
  • General (15,670)
  • Health (9,766)
  • Lifestyle (732)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (728)
  • Politics (734)
  • Science (15,945)
  • Sports (21,225)
  • Technology (15,712)
  • World (708)

Recent News

Inspira Technologies Secures Landmark $22.5M Deal: Major Revenue Breakthrough After FDA Clearance – Stock Titan

Inspira Technologies Secures Landmark $22.5M Deal: Major Revenue Breakthrough After FDA Clearance – Stock Titan

July 2, 2025
Diamondbacks ban fan who interfered with apparent would-be Giants HR for rest of season, citing ‘multiple offenses’ – Yahoo Sports

Diamondbacks ban fan who interfered with apparent would-be Giants HR for rest of season, citing ‘multiple offenses’ – Yahoo Sports

July 2, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version