St. Albert plants are blooming earlier than ever because of climate change, says an Edmonton researcher, which could put them at risk of winter frost.
Elisabeth Beaubien, a plant ecologist at the University of Alberta, published a study on first-flowering dates of Alberta plants in this month’s issue of BioScience. She is well known amongst local naturalists as the head of the Alberta PlantWatch program.
The study tracks the dates when seven common Alberta plants first bloom after winter over 70 years and compares them to temperature changes. Temperature is one of the main determinants of when plants bloom. The research involved hundreds of citizen scientists throughout central Alberta, some of whom were based in St. Albert.
Beaubien’s team found that six of the seven plants — prairie crocus, trembling aspen, choke cherry, wolf willow, yarrow and northern bedstraw — all bloomed earlier in 2006 than they did in 1936. The only plant for which bloom dates did not change was saskatoons. The crocus, whose pale blue or purple blossoms are one of the first to appear each spring, and the aspen, known for its caterpillar-like flowers, both bloom about two weeks earlier. Other researchers have found similar shifts in plants throughout the world, the study notes.
This corresponded to a dramatic rise in winter temperatures, Beaubien notes. “The [mean] minimum February monthly temperature has gone up by six degrees over 70 years, which is a huge warming.”
We’re seeing a march to an earlier spring, Beaubien concludes, adding that this isn’t the best news for plants. These bloom dates are moving up faster than winter is moving back, putting these plants at greater risk of winter frosts. This threatens their ability to reproduce and could affect the birds and bugs that feed on them.
Western and northern Canada are amongst the fastest warming regions in the world, Beaubien notes, and we can see this warming in the plants in our backyards.
“It’s an indication of what is happening to the environment in general,” she writes, also encouraging residents to think about what they can do to stop climate change.
Mountain pine beetles are roaring back in northern Alberta thanks to this year’s warm winter, according to the provincial government.
Alberta Sustainable Resource Development released its latest report on the mountain pine beetle this week. The report shows that the bug’s numbers are growing rapidly north of Grande Prairie, holding steady near Whitecourt, and falling around Slave Lake and Rocky Mountain House. The rice-sized mountain pine beetles killed about 3.5 million trees last year.
“What we’re seeing is a consolidation,” spokesperson Duncan MacDonnell says.
Beetle numbers are falling in southwest Alberta and on the leading edge of the infestation, which, like last year, is as far east as Slave Lake. But because we didn’t get long stretches of –40 C weather this winter, many of the bugs survived, allowing them to build strength in other regions.
“It’s in pockets. It’s really variable,” MacDonnell says.
Researchers recently confirmed that the beetles had made the jump from lodgepole to jack pine, the latter of which is common throughout Canada. Left unchecked, foresters fear the bug could use jack pine to march across the nation.
“The threat here is not just in Alberta,” MacDonnell says, “but the rest of the forests in Canada.”
Foresters are now waiting for next month’s flight season to see how far the beetles go, MacDonnell says. “The real danger is an in-flight from British Colombia,” he says, which could drop the bugs anywhere in the province.
MacDonnell encouraged city residents to watch for pitch tubes on their local pines as signs of a potential beetle infestation. Full details can be found at mpb.alberta.ca.
