CLIMATE CHANGE SHIFTING SEASONS-Birds and Bees Prematurely Active in Greenland

ten years of study...enough?

But according to a new report in the scientific journal Current Biology, melt-water isn't the only clue Greenland provides the world when it comes to climate change. Scientists from Denmark's National Environmental Research Institute, affiliated with the University of Aarhus, have found that spring in Greenland now starts much earlier than it did just a decade ago with some plant, animal and insect species welcoming the warm season up to 30 days prematurely.

The team of biologists, led by Toke Hoye, spent 10 years monitoring the entire ecosystem near the Zackenberg Research Station, located well above the Arctic Circle in north-eastern Greenland. It is a region that is hit especially hard by climate change, with temperatures there rising at double the global average. Now, though, it has become clear just how species living in the region respond.

"At this time, we have already achieved an outstanding knowledge of not only the responses of plants and birds to climate change in the High Arctic, but also how an entire ecosystem responds to the changes," Hoye said in a statement posted on the Aarhus University Web site.

On average, Hoye's team found -- after analyzing the flowering dates of six plant species, emergence times for 12 species of insect, and egg-laying dates for three bird types -- that spring in the Zackenberg ecosystem has moved forward by an average of 14.5 days. By comparison, similar studies have found that plants in Europe bloom an average of two to three days early compared to a decade ago.
[link to www.spiegel.de]

so if you're missing bats or birds or bees...you may wish to read the full article.