By the end of the current century, climate change is projected to shift the seasons as we know them, ushering in spring up to three weeks earlier than normal.
According to The Guardian, the researchers project springtime plants will start blooming up to 22.3 days earlier across the nation by the year 2100. In the Pacific Northwest, spring could start four weeks earlier than usual.
The new study is published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
"Our projections show that winter will be shorter - which sound greats great for those of us in Wisconsin" study co-author Andrew Allstadt, an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in a press release. "But long distance migratory birds, for example, time their migration based on day length in their winter range. They may arrive in their breeding ground to find that the plant resources that they require are already gone."
There is also the case of "false spring," where the weather gives various signs of the end of winter before yielding another snow or cold spell, which is particularly damaging to plants that bloom at this time.
"This is important as false springs can damage plant production cycles in natural and agricultural systems" Allstadt said. "In some cases, an entire crop can be lost."
He also said his team plans to apply the study to figuring out how shifting seasons can effect various ecosystems and industries.
"We know spring is getting earlier. But we provide actual evidence for how much earlier," Allstadt told The Guardian. "The timing of events is important.
"If plants are shifting earlier in the year, there is a worry that the animals that depend on the plants won't keep up with those shifts."
