Categories: News

City trees are budding six days earlier than their rural counterparts, according to new research

City trees are budding earlier than their rural counterparts due to hotter temperatures and artificial light, according to new research published in the journal Science. As reported by NPR, study author Lin Meng collected satellite data from 85 U.S. cities from 2001 to 2014, revealing a startling pattern: City trees turn green six days earlier compared to trees in rural areas. Blame urban “heat islands” and the omnipresence of streetlights, billboards, and vehicle headlights, which act as a kind of  extended daylight that triggers earlier spring greening. The phenomenon could have serious implications for plant-pollinator relationships, make plants more susceptible to spring frost, and lead to longer allergy and mosquito seasons. It also promises to wreak havoc on regional spring festivals devoted to flower blooms, which may need to be scheduled to coincide with the premature greening. —Patricia I. Escárcega

Related Post
The Counter
Share
Published by
The Counter

Recent Posts

Grist acquires The Counter and launches food and agriculture vertical

Grist, an award-winning, nonprofit media organization dedicated to highlighting climate solutions and uncovering environmental injustices,…

6 months ago

Is California giving its methane digesters too much credit?

Every year, California dairy farms emit hundreds of thousands of tons of the potent greenhouse…

3 years ago

Your car is killing coho salmon

Highway 7 runs north-south through western Washington, carving its way through a landscape sparsely dotted…

3 years ago

The pandemic has transformed America’s dining landscape into an oligopoly dominated by chains 

One of the greatest pleasures I had as a child growing up in the Chicago…

3 years ago

California is moving toward food assistance for all populations—including undocumented immigrants

Undocumented immigrants experience food insecurity at much higher rates than other populations, yet they are…

3 years ago

Babka, borscht … and pumpkin spice? Two writers talk about Jewish identity through contemporary cookbooks.

Writer Charlotte Druckman and editor Rebecca Flint Marx are both Jewish journalists living in New…

3 years ago