I am currently in an Ecology course at college, and it's a class I enjoy very much, if only for the amount of fieldwork we do. One of our projects is to follow one of the trees on campus and track it's phenophase changes. (Phenophase meaning what the tree is doing at that point in time.) Last Spring, myself and several other students noticed something odd, the plants were flowering and fruiting MUCH sooner in the season than normal, and some even managed to flower and fruit twice. This prompted me to do a little research, and http://star.arm.ac.uk/nci/docs/100562.pdf <--- THIS is what I found. This article by Allison Donnelly, Nicolas Salamin and Mike B. Jones discussing how warmer springs could be triggering early phenophases in trees. Now, a lot of people believe Global Warming is a hoax, and because temperature fluctuations happen yearly, they might be right. However, no one can argue that the last decade has seen higher average spring and summer temperatures. Another point to note, this paper's study took place in Iceland, and the warm spring/summer trend is happening not just here, but all over the world.
The article talks more about some fairly serious implications, and more than hints at carbon emissions from human activity as a likely cause. But, I just found it interesting that whether it's our fault or not, the trees are being fooled into reproducing earlier in the year. (Phenophase changes are often caused by average temperature changes that accompany season changes.) It's making me wonder, if it's all just a hoax, I wonder how the trees on campus are being fooled.
I'm not sure if global warming is true, however statistics do show that it is becoming warming. Even if global warming is not real I feel that the actions taking by people to reduce its effect is going to help the environment and keep our world nicer and cleaner.
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