I was fortunate to attend a symposium at Connecticut College on January 20 and 21, 2011. In it's 22nd year, "Uncharted Territory" is a wonderful opportunity to hear top speakers and learn cutting edge approaches to land restoration and ecological landscape design. This program is co-sponsored by Connecticut College Arboretum and New Directions in the American Landscape, a non-profit educational organization founded by Larry Weaner, landscape designer.
The first speaker, Dr. Tom Webb, Professor Emeritus at Brown University, spoke about the Hypsithermal Interval, a climatic period which occurred eight thousand years ago and was characterized by increasing temperatures and decreased rainfall, and other climatic changes over the last 21,000 years. His presentation showed how the climatic changes affected the distribution of plant species in North America. Using fossil evidence and pollen analysis, scientists are understanding these changes in ways that have opportunities for those of us trying to understand the changes we are facing in this era of warming climate. Dr. Webb showed us how to access information on line which will help us in plant selection in our current warming trend.
Climate change will not be uniform around the world but certain trends are predictable. For instance, rising sea levels. During the last, ice age, for example, seawater levels dropped 120 meters. That water was locked into ice sheets and is now being released back into the sea.
Warmer winters accompanied by drier summers (longer droughts) will lead to changes in streamflow. Water experts in the US are seriously worried about water levels in streams and rivers of all sizes. Increased winter precipitation cannot completely compensate for the expected longer summer drought periods.
Also, warmer winters will affect plant growth and flowering times. Apples do best with forty days below 45 degrees F. In areas of moderate winters, even a small change in length of winter, may affect agricultural crops. Warmer temperatures will benefit invasive species such as Kudzu vine which is gobbling up land areas in the SE USA and making its way north with the warming trend.
Additionally, flowering time of plants is critical to the survival of animal species which depend on plants for their life cycles. Many insects have evolved to synchronize their egg hatching with flowering of specific plant species.
For those of us involved in ecological landscape design or food production, we need resources to help us choose plant species that will be tolerant of the climatic changes we are undergoing.
Here are some useful websites to explore for weather and climate data and climate impact information: (provided by Dr. Thompson Webb III, Brown University)
1.NASA GISS site for Global Maps and Graphs
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/
2. NASA Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/index.php
(site with up-to-date and archived photos for global changes)
3. Daily Weather with Climate Information
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/box/
4. Climate At a Glance, NOAA: (click on Cities Link)
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/cag3.html
can see maps and graphs of recent to long-term changes in temperature and precipitation
5. Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University
http://www.nrcc.cornell.edu/
http://www.nrcc.cornell.edu/page_climatelinkds.html
Websites Showing Climate Impacts for Plants
Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment
6. http://www.northeastclimateimpacts.org/
7. Climate Change Atlas of the US Forest Service
http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/atlas/
8. Maps of Changes in Distribution of Plant Taxa since the Last Glacial Maximum 21,000 years ago: in Google, type NOAA Pollen Viewer or go to
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pollen/viewer/webviewer.html.
These websites are fascinating and a little scary too. We need this information, however, to plan for what is coming - no, what is already here.
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