Saturday, April 18, 2015

Why flowers bloom earlier in a warming climate

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150331073936.htm







Scientists at the John Innes Centre have discovered why the first buds of spring come increasingly earlier as the climate changes.

Dr Steven Penfield at the JIC found that plants have an ideal temperature for seed set and flower at a particular time of year to make sure their seed develops just as the weather has warmed to this 'sweet spot' temperature.

As the climate changes the sweet spot for seeds comes earlier in the year, so first flowers bloom correspondingly earlier too.
The research which received funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BBSRC) and is published in eLife, used computer models to understand the growth strategy of Arabidopsis thaliana. The underlying principle of a very sensitive temperature sweet spot is likely to apply to many flowering plants. This would mean that certain plants have different flowering times due to different but equally narrow temperature sensitivity windows.

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