Natural History Wanderings

BBC News reported in its story Plants flower faster than climate change models predict, on how scientific models are not accurately predicting the impact of global warming on plants. Researchers found that flowering plants were blooming up to eight times faster than models predicted. The authors of the study, published in the journal Nature, believe that spring-flowering and the leafing out of plants will advance at a rate of 5 to 6 days per year for every degree Celsius of warming. The inaccuracy  of the predictions is believed  to be due to models based on studies done in warming chambers that have not duplicated what is actually happening in nature. Read more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17924653