*NEWS*ARTIC SPRING’S RAPID ADVANCE

[Anonymous]

Arctic spring’s ‘rapid advance’
Spring in the Arctic is arriving “weeks earlier” than a decade ago, a team of Danish researchers have reported.
Ice
in north-east Greenland is melting an average of 14.6 days earlier than
in the mid-1990s, bringing forward the date plants flower and birds lay
eggs.The team warned that the observed changes could disrupt the
region’s ecosystems and food chain, affecting the long-term survival of
some species.

The findings have been published in the journal Current Biology.
The
scientists assessed how a range of species’ behaviour was affected by
the changing climate in Zackenberg, north-east Greenland, between 1996
and 2005.Observation of 21 species – six plants, 12 arthropods and
three birds – revealed that the organisms had brought forward their
flowering, emergence or egg-laying in line with the earlier ice
melt.”We were particularly surprised to see the trends were so strong
when considering that the entire summer is very short in the High
Arctic – just three or four months from snowmelt to freeze-up,” said
co-author Toke Hoye, from the University of Aarhus.”The real deciding
factor is that each individual time series has a very close
correlation, so it is not just that the average trend is very similar
but each species is closely coupled (to the ice melt).”

Winner and losers
Dr
Hoye suggested that the warming in the region, which was occurring at
twice the rate of the global average, could affect the future stability
of the region’s ecosystem.”There could be positive consequences in the
short term, and potentially negative consequences in the long term.”At
first, this could be regarded as a positive result because it is
extending the summer season, which is probably a factor in terms of
organisms getting through their development.”Over the long term, it is
most likely to be the case that species from southern latitudes will be
able to establish themselves (in the region) and increase competition
for food.”Dr Hoye acknowledged that the 10-year period could be
considered by some people as not long enough to reach these
conclusions.But he added the changes in behaviour had been observed in
a large number of species, and that the findings were considered by
independent reviewers who were satisfied by the consistency of the
results.”They had hoped for a longer time period, and we did too,” he
told BBC News.”But until we have managed to gather another 10 years of
data, it is relevant to make this point now.”He added that the
findings, described as the first of their kind for the High Arctic,
extended the global picture of changing behaviour among organisms.In
August, scientists from 17 nations examined 125,000 studies involving
561 species across Europe.The researchers found a shift in the
continent’s seasons, with spring arriving an average of six to eight
days earlier than it did 30 years ago. 

[Author]

June 19, 2007 at 10:16 AM