Natural History Wanderings

Scientists are currently studying fall foliage patterns to see if fall is happening later due to climate change.  Japan and European Studies show leaves turning later color later and staying on trees later in the season. The U.S. does not yet have definitive study on is fall later. However some preliminary studies mentioned in a SF Chronicle article suggest this is a possibility:

•” Researchers at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and at Seoul National University in South Korea used satellites to show the end of the growing season was delayed by 6½ days from 1982 to 2008 in the Northern Hemisphere.

• In Massachusetts, the leaves are changing about three days later than they were two decades ago at the Harvard Forest 65 miles west of Boston, according to data collected by John O’Keefe, a retired Harvard professor and museum coordinator who’s continuing to collect data.

• In New Hampshire, data collected at the federal Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in Woodstock suggests sugar maples are going dormant two to five days later than they were two decades ago.

• In Vermont, state foresters studying sugar maples at the Proctor Maple Research Center in Underhill found that the growing season ended later than the statistical average in seven out of the last 10 years.”

Fall foliage can also effected by heavy precipitation , drought, wind and sudden or extreme temperature changes that are not necessarily related to climate change.

Read more in SF Chronicle  Is climate change affecting fall foliage?