BOULDER, Colo. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Could the emergence of spring provide clues to climate change? Some researchers think so and now, you can be part of the scientific process studying global warming, just by observing what's blooming in your own backyard.
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This spring, there may be more to those buds and blossoms in your backyard than meets the eye. The timing of when plants bud or flower is changing and nature's calendar is getting warmer earlier. While studying climate change, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. is recruiting volunteers across the country to monitor their back yards.
"Scientists can't be everywhere," Sandra Henderson, Ph.D., a science educator at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., told Ivanhoe. "We need these extra sentinel eyes on the landscape, if you will."
Henderson spearheads Project BudBurst. "Well, it may not seem like a lot when a plant blooms earlier or later. What the plant does is it starts giving us clues to the climate. When you start tracking this long-term we can see when those changes occur," she explained.
Botanists anxiously await Project BudBurst's findings. "I think there's validity to that if you are willing to look at it over the long term and things are very different from one season to the next, but it's really averages you have to consider," Dan Johnson, curator of native plant collections at the Denver Botanic Gardens in Denver, Colo., told Ivanhoe. Volunteers record weekly data online. "Project Budburst allows individuals an opportunity to learn more about climate change through participation," Dr. Henderson said.
Project budburst will be repeated year after year, so volunteers will build their own archive of evidence from their own backyard. You too can be a citizen scientist with Project BudBurst. Sign up online at www.budburst.org.
The American Geophysical Union contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
American Geophysical Uniony
Washington, DC 20009-1277
(800) 966-2481
http://www.agu.org
Sandra Henderson, Ph.D.
Office of Education and Outreach
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, CO 80307
(303) 497-8108
sandrah@ucar.edu
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