Rocky Mountain Wildlfower Season Increases by a Month, Study

Researchers say that wildflowers on the Rocky Mountains have undergone a change in their blooming pattern as a result of climate change.

The local wildflowers on the Rocky Mountain are facing the brunt of climate change. Researchers at the University of Maryland reveal that over two-thirds of the alpine flowers have altered their blooming pattern due to climate change since the 1970s.  The bloom season that extended from late May to early September now stays from late April to late September, indicating the flowers bloom weeks earlier and reach their peak much earlier.

Based on the wildflower records that include over two million blooms, the researchers identified that the response of these flowering plants to the climate change is much more complex than what was known till date. Different species respond in unpredicted and unexpected manner. A change has also been observed in the combination of flower species that bloom together. This drastic alteration in the flowering pattern has serious impacts on birds and insects.

To understand how climate change is affecting plants and animals, phenologists are working on modern data.

"Most studies rely on first dates of events like flowering or migration, because they use historical data sets that were not intended as scientific studies. First flowering is easy to observe. You don't have to take the time to count flowers. So that's often the only information available. It has taken a lot of effort to get the comprehensive insights needed for this analysis, which helps us understand how ecological communities are going to change in the future," University of Maryland Biology Professor David Inouye, said in a statement.

For this study, Inouye along with University of Arizona doctoral student, Paul CaraDonna, and University of Maryland postdoctoral research associate Amy Iler, focused on data of 60 common species.

On analyzing the data it became evident that the bloom times were undergoing rapid change. The date the first spring flower appeared had now advanced to over 6 days per decade. The time when the wildflowers burst in bloom had also changed and advanced 5 days per decade. When compared to earlier times, the flowering season is now one month longer. Nearly 17 percent of the species have completely altered their bloom cycle.

"What we show is that first flowering isn't always the best predictor of all the changes we find," CaraDonna said. "It's important to take a closer look in order to understand all the ways that climate change affects these wildflower communities."

The study was documented in the journal PNAS.