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Warming temps disrupt delicate cycles involving plants, insects and birds
By Summit Voice
SUMMIT COUNTY — If you miss this year’s synchronized firefly display in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, you can blame it on freakishly warm spring weather, perhaps linked to predicted weather extremes caused by global warming.
Because of the unseasonably warm spring, the synchronized fireflies in the park are displaying earlier than ever recorded, according to park officials.
Fireflies are in trouble as it is, with habitat loss and artificial night lighting cited as the main threats to their survival by Firefly.org. A rapidly changing climate probably won’t help their chances, as the timing of larval emergence and the blooming of plants the insects depend on changes. (more…)
Filed under: biodiversity, climate and weather, Environment, global warming, national parks, public lands, seasons | Tagged: climate, fireflies, global warming, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, insects | 5 Comments »
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