Why Plants Are Confused by Climate Change

Plants are reacting to climate change, but it's not as simple as one might think. Scientists have been studying how plants respond to warmer temperatures, especially in spring. They've come up with a new way to measure this response, called "phenological lag. " This measures how plants are affected by things like not enough cold in winter, changes in daylight, and other environmental stresses. To understand this better, researchers looked at data from almost 1, 000 plant species and over 1, 500 responses. They found that plants in experiments and native plants are flowering later, probably because of stress from warmer, drier weather. In boreal regions, plants are not responding as much to warming as those in temperate regions. This is because the increase in warmth needed for plants to start growing, called "forcing, " is smaller there. Also, plants need higher temperatures to burst their buds, which affects when they flower.Interestingly, things like altitude, latitude, and average temperature changes don't have a big impact on when plants start growing in spring. But, changes in daylight and long-term rainfall don't seem to make a difference either. This new method helps scientists figure out why plants are responding the way they are to climate change. But why does this matter? Well, understanding how plants respond to climate change can help us predict how plant communities and ecosystems will change. This is important for conservation efforts and for understanding how our environment will change in the future.