A herbarium sheet of the early spider orchid, Ophrys sphegodes, at Kew - a record from Kent from May 1900. REUTERS/K. Robbirt/University of East Anglia
Posted on 09/26/2010 2:31:49 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
OSLO (Reuters) – Flowers picked up to 150 years ago in Victorian England show that old collections of pressed plants around the world can help the study of climate change, scientists said on Wednesday.
Ecologists compared samples of early spider orchids, held in collections with notes showing the exact day in spring when they were picked in southern England from 1848-1958, and dates when the same flower blossomed in the wild from 1975-2006.
"Warmer years were associated with earlier flowering ... In both cases flowering was advanced by about six days per 1 degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) rise in average spring temperature," they wrote in the Journal of Ecology after cross-checking with local temperature records.
The match between higher temperatures and quicker flowering for both old and modern orchids showed for the first time that botanical collections could be a reliable source to study climate, even if temperature records were lacking, they said.
Vast numbers of specimens of plants and animals are in collections around the world, some of them dating back 250 years and long before there were reliable temperature records in many nations.
"It potentially opens up new uses for ... specimens -- this could provide us with long-term data about climate," said Anthony Davy, a professor at the University of East Anglia who was a co-author of the study led by colleague Karen Robbirt.
The U.N. panel of climate scientists said in a 2007 report that average world temperatures rose 0.7 degree Celsius (1.3 F) over the 19th century, mainly .. due to a build-up of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.
Tree rings are among biological indicators of climate in past centuries, .. Manmade global warming is very likely to be the dominant cause of warming in the past half-century, according to the U.N panel.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
A herbarium sheet of the early spider orchid, Ophrys sphegodes, at Kew - a record from Kent from May 1900. REUTERS/K. Robbirt/University of East Anglia
and the conclusion would be??
Some will flower earlier and some will flower later depending on the weather
But I can't predict which years...and this is "weather"....not climate
There are all kinds of other variables, too.
This study proves that tulips were amenable to domestication ~ nothing more than that.
spider orchid
Not the most colorful little thing but it is a hairy looking critter
spider orchid unpressed
visited a navy instructor’s place once upon a time with some fellow Marine classmates, he had a decent sixed greenhouse full of orchids, I love going to tropical places like Hawaii and near the equator, the plant and flower life is quite a show sometimes.
sized
Yeah, why rely on facts when you can just make things up.
*eyeroll*
*eyeroll*
“There are all kinds of other variables, too.”
I have become very skeptical of proxy data. Too many variables to consider them accurate in all but a very general way. Not reliable in my opinion.
OK, we’ve got to start a new cult. Look how DRY it was back then, we must now have a “global wetting” problem! :-)
Norm, would you stick to areas of your expertise like Nascar and 49s Foose Ball and not trying to predict what the weather will be yesterday...
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