Climate Change Means Spring Is Coming Earlier

By Mark Brodie
Published: Friday, December 6, 2019 - 2:21pm

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Theresa Crimmins
Mike Crimmins
Theresa Crimmins.

If it feels like spring has been coming sooner here in Arizona over the past few years, your observation may not be far off.

New research has found spring is springing earlier in parts of the country. And that could be having implications for many plant and animal species.

Theresa Crimmins joined The Show to talk more about this. She's associate director of the USA National Phenology Network and a research scientist at the University of Arizona.

Phenology, by the way, is the study of the timing of events that happen seasonally in plants and animals.

Crimmins says one of the main things her organization does is run a program in which anyone can keep track of what’s happening in their own backyard, which helps determine, for example, when leaves change colors, or when birds migrate.

She looked at 70 years of data to try to figure out if spring is coming earlier than it has in the past.

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