'Out of whack': Plants and animals react to record February heat, a sign of climate change - WKOW

'Out of whack': Plants and animals react to record February heat, a sign of climate change | Environment | wkow.com
"Wisconsin has warmed by three or four degrees Fahrenheit since the middle of the 20th century," Vimont told 27 News on the same day the Madison area marked its warmest Feb. 27 ever recorded. "One of the things we find with climate change is that the winters warm a little bit more than the summers do."

MADISON (WKOW) -- Experts on climate and ecology are warning that Wisconsin's winters are growing shorter, bringing about changes in local plants and animals as southern Wisconsin breaks record high temperatures for this point in February.

Daniel Vimont, a UW-Madison professor of atmospheric and oceanic science, has seen a trend in Wisconsin's climate: it's getting warmer.

"Wisconsin has warmed by three or four degrees Fahrenheit since the middle of the 20th century," Vimont told 27 News on the same day the Madison area marked its warmest Feb. 27 ever recorded. "One of the things we find with climate change is that the winters warm a little bit more than the summers do."

El Niño, a meteorological phenomena that disrupts normal weather patterns, has compounded climate change these last several months. The force manifests itself in the upper Midwest as warmer than average temperatures.

"The El Niño event, you put that on top of [climate change], it's kind of a one-two punch," Vimont said.

Stanley Temple, a UW-Madison professor emeritus of forest and wildlife ecology, sees concerning changes in bird migration patterns.

"Many people are accustomed to seeing robins now during the winter," Temple said, noting that more and more robins, which traditionally migrate during the winter, are choosing to stay in southern Wisconsin during the cold months.

Those robins can't eat worms when the ground is frozen. Instead they eat fruit, sometimes from invasive plants.

"And they fly around and spread those seeds all over the place," Temple said.

Robins are far from the only bird changing their migration patterns. Temple cited grackles and red winged blackbirds as other example species following in the robin's wing flaps.

Sandhill cranes usually migrate four or five months out of the year--but not this one.

"The ones that we monitor at the Aldo Leopold Foundation near Baraboo didn't leave until Jan. 11," Temple said. "And they were back on Feb. 11."

Fruit trees in Stoughton are beginning to bud, and pollinators have emerged in Columbus. These species will be met by temperatures expected to drop suddenly.

This winter is part of a trend. Since 1970, Madison's cold streaks, or the longest periods of time when temperatures have remained below average, have shrunk by seven days. The data is tracked by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"It is something that worries ecologists, that we're getting things that are sort of out of whack with the way these plants and animals have adapted to climates like Wisconsin's," Temple said.