Light pollution is disrupting the seasonal rhythms of plants and trees, lengthening pollen season in US cities
Artificial light is upending trees’ ability to use the natural day-night cycle as a signal of seasonal change.
July 12, 2022 • ~5 min
Artificial light is upending trees’ ability to use the natural day-night cycle as a signal of seasonal change.
Trees and shrubs in cold-weather climates rely on certain signals, such as temperature and light, to know when to leaf out and bloom. Climate change is scrambling those signals.
COVID-19 kept many scientists from doing field research in 2020, which means that important records will have data gaps. But volunteers are helping to plug some of those holes.
The COVID-19 pandemic is interrupting scientific field work across North America, leaving blank spots in important data sets and making it harder to track ecological change.
Climate change has advanced the arrival of spring by as much as several weeks in some parts of the US. This can mean major crop losses and disconnects between species that need each other to thrive.
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