Pamala Carlson

Biology 1615
07/16/14
Climate Change in Flowering Plants
Climate change has a major effect on when certain plants flower and what growing season it is
in. We want to make sure that they are flowering at the correct time to eliminate pollinator shortages.
Scientists want to determine if flowering too early or late in the season will affect the pollen and
reproduction of the plant. If plants arent able to reproduce and make pollen they will slowly
deteriorate. Through many studies Scientists can suggest that climate is changing and can make flowers
resilient against early snow melt.
The particular flowers that have been used in this method of observation is the early spring
wildflower. Some predictions that scientists have made is that if a plant flowers too early in the season
they can be affected by frost that will damage the plant cells. If the plants cells are being altered then it
might not be able to pollinate in the correct manner and seed for the next flower generation. With many
pros and cons on climate change in this particular study is to determine whether in an early snow melt
season if the flowers are more vulnerable. When it is in the early season we are able to see if this affects
the pollinator effect.
For this experiment they had two study sites where they were able to have a control site with
many different climates from dry all the way to very moist. On the actual study site it was a rocky dirt
area that had snow placed on top and melted to reflect and early snow melt. Some of the data that was
analyzed for this was the flowering patterns comparing them over the years, floral longevity which
showed how long the flower lasted, and pollen limitation between the flowers that were hand
pollinated and the flowers that were open pollinated. When scientists use specific methods such as how
a flower is pollinated or by what environment they chose for their study sites. They are better able to
predict and get the results they are looking for.
In many of the results that they had it differed from their predictions in the beginning of the
study. When scientists looked at results from the early snowmelt it affected some flowers, more
specifically smaller ones, however, the larger flowers were able to last longer because they had more
strength. When they saw the results for floral longevity they saw a reduction in flowers that were self-
pollinated versus hand pollinated. When hand pollination they used a supplemented pollen that wasnt
a significant different to make a big part of the study change. After a couple of years scientists can now
predict a conclusion using their results.
During the duration of this observation and experimenting with climate change scientists have
predicted that the overall timing and duration was based upon the snow melt aspect. The more frost
had an effect on the growing of flowers because it was a frost sensitive species. There are many
strategies that have been used during this experiment and will help in future reproduction of flowering
plants in climate changing environments. Scientists have predicted that although there is climate
changes all the time, species can adapt to the climate and survive. There is still more to be studies
regarding climate change but from this study we can see what climate change is doing to our flowering
time in plants.




This article summarizes the information in this scientific paper:
CONSEQUENCES OF VARIATION IN FLOWERING TIME WITHIN
AND AMONG INDIVIDUALS OF MERTENSIA FUSIFORMIS
(BORAGINACEAE), AN EARLY SPRING WILDFLOWER 1
Jessica Forrest 2 and James D. Thomson
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord Street,
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G5,
Canada; and Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, P.O. Box 519, Crested Butte, Colorado
81224 USA