According to the Woodland Trust, the quantity of acorn harvests from the United Kingdom's oak trees have been greatly affected due to climate change.
Using information recorded for the Nature Calendar's survey of varying seasons, researchers discovered that hotter years have made less synchronized flowering of oak trees, resulting in smaller harvests.
Professor Tim Sparks, senior lecturer in statistics at Coventry University, examined over 160,000 bits of information and discovered that if there are more changes on initial flowering dates, then the less robust the acorn harvest will be.
It was noted that the average scores recorded for the yield of acorn harvest declined by 20 percent in the survey of Nature's Calendar for each four days' increment in the variance of initial flowering.
The Woodland Trust documented that, since 2002, the UK has experienced eight out of the 10 hottest years in its history and that the pattern is most likely to continue in the future.
"This is a preliminary result which requires further study, but there is a significant correlation for both species of native oak. Synchronized years tend to be those with a later mean flowering date, suggesting warmer years are associated with smaller acorn crops," Sparks said.
Acorns or oak nuts, very rich in nutrients, play a vital role in being the food supply for several wildlife species, including deer, jays, squirrels and pigeons, and some of these animals help to scatter the acorn seeds. However, climate change affects the synchronized flowering that allows oak trees to multiply its genes through wind dispersal of pollen.
Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions caused by factors such as volcanic eruptions, biotic processes, plate tectonics and variations in solar radiation received by the Earth. Certain human activities have also been identified as significant causes of recent climate change, commonly known as global warming. More than 90 percent of the additional energy stored in the climate system since 1970 has gone into ocean warming; the remainder has melted ice and warmed the continents and atmosphere.
Dr. Kate Lewthwaite, citizen science manager at Woodland Trust, explained that hotter springs that "stretch things" result in less synchronized flowering, which gives oak trees fewer chances to cross-pollinate and germinate over large regions — thus the reduction of acorn harvest.
The general population can assist in recording the first flowering and leafing of the oak trees on Nature's Calendar, which proudly displays data about the altering seasons in the environment since 1736, putting it among the longest biological record of its category.
Photo: Hans Splinter | Flickr
