spring bulbs for schools investigation results 2006-2010
Post on 21-Dec-2015
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Huge thanks!
Professor Plant would like to thank all of the school scientists that have sent in records this year!
You are all Super Scientists!
Since October 2005, school scientists across Wales have been keeping weather records and noting when their flowers open, as part of a long-term study looking at the effects of temperature on spring bulbs.
The investigation...
Bulb – blog & Twitter Pupils sent in
questions for Professor plant & reported that they enjoyed the project and learnt a lot about plants and our climate.
To see their questions and comments see the bulb-blog
Eyton Primary School, Wrexham
Farm trip, certificates & daffodils funded by…
Winners 2010 – Pentrepoeth Junior School, Morriston, Swansea & home educated families.
A long term study…
Our climate is changing and so are our seasons. Over the next 10-20 years (and hopefully more) we want school scientists to show how climate change is affecting flowering times in spring bulbs.
In the short term there is plenty for schools to study.
Our records show that spring 2010 was much colder than in previous years.
Average temperature °C 2005-6 2006-7 2007-8 2008-9 2009-10
Nov 6 7.5 7.4 6.9 8
Dec 4.2 6 4.9 3.5 3
Jan 4 6.5 6.1 2.9 1.2
Feb 3.6 5 5 3.9 2.4
March 4.6 6.4 5.6 6.2 5.1
All months 4.48 6.28 5.8 4.68 3.94
Average temperatures 2006 - 2010
2006
20072008
2009
2010
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Year
Av
era
ge
te
mp
era
ture
(C
)
Average temperatures were very low…
Average hours of sunshine 2006 - 2010
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
72
74
76
78
80
82
84
Year
Ho
urs
And there wasn’t much sunshine…
Average spring flowering dates 2006-2010
19/03/200606/03/2007 14/02/2008
07/03/2009
24/03/2010
01/02
06/02
11/02
16/02
21/02
26/02
03/03
08/03
13/03
18/03
Year
Date
As a result the average flowering date for all our spring flowers was later than before.
Farmers growing daffodils at the Really Welsh Company – also reported that their daffodils opened 4 to 5 weeks later than usual.
Average flowering date
Crocus Daffodil
All schools 2010 06/03/2010 24/03/2010
All schools 2009 13/03/2009 07/03/2009
All schools 2008 16/02/2008 14/02/2008
All schools 2007 16/02/2007 06/03/2007
All schools 2006 25/02/2006 19/03/2006
School scientists found that the majority of the flowers didn’t open until March 2010, which is late, as we would expect with such a cold spring.
We may have had a cold winter but our world is still heating up!
With all these cold winters you may be thinking that the world is getting colder –not warmer – but this isn’t the case. Global warming is still happening and we still need to reduce our CO2 emissions.
Despite UK temperatures plummeting to - 22 degrees in places, globally, January 2010 was the warmest on record!
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