全球變暖致今年春季過早來臨

古人云“春江水暖鴨先知”，但今年的春季似乎來得特別早，植物學家在觀測研究了鮮花盛開的情況後得出了這一結論。

Spring arrived incredibly early this year, according to a botanist who monitors the blooming patterns of flowers。

古人云“春江水暖鴨先知”，但今年的春季似乎來得特別早，植物學家在觀測研究了鮮花盛開的情況後得出了這一結論。

Cristol Fleming says she believes the appearance of flowers up to two months early is down to the changes created by global warming。

植物學家Cristol Fleming認爲，由於溫室效應全球變暖，導致了一些植物開花的時間提早了將近兩個月之多。

Experts have started calling the shift in the times that plants bloom "season creep" and using decades of research have charted how much earlier it is happening。

專家學者們開始講類似的植物提前現象稱爲“季節前移”，他們在分析了近幾十年來的研究所得出的結果表明了這種情況的確正在發生。

The leaves of the English oak are appearing sooner, meaning that winter moths are coming out earlier and, because the birds that eat them are still flying north, they have already turned from caterpillars and into moths。

橡樹枝葉發芽的時間越來越早，這意味了冬蛾出現的時間也更早，因爲專吃冬蛾還在向北遷徙中，這使得該類物種順利地由毛毛蟲變成蛾。

Their research is matched by that of researchers in Korea tracking cherry blossom and the U.S., which records its findings at the Smithsonian Institution's National Herbarium every year。

科學家們的研究結果與韓國對櫻花的監測不謀而合，另外，美國國家植物協會的發現也充分證明了這點。

A 2005 analysis of 100 of the most popular flowers, 90 bloomed up to 44 days sooner than they did 20 years ago, according to the Washington Post。

一項2005年的研究發現，在100種常見花卉中，有90種的開花時間要比20年前提前了近44天。

'There is always variation from year-to-year in nature。”

“年復一年，大自然總會發生變化。”'And I don’t want to sound alarmist that spring is coming earlier and earlier,” said Fleming, who is in her 70s. “But, boy, every year, we do feel it.'

“我並不是想要危言聳聽，但是春季的確來得越來越早了，”七十多歲的Fleming說，“並且每年我們都能感覺得到。”

Meanwhile Remote Sensing Systems has shown that March 2011 was the coolest March since 1994.

與此同時，遙感系統的顯示，2011年的三月是自1994年以來，氣溫最低的三月份。

It was 0.026C cooler than average - the first month that has been cooler than average since June 2008.

今年三月的氣溫較常年的平均值低0.026攝氏度，這也是自2008年6月以來，首次出現氣溫低於平均氣溫的情況。

Ms Fleming worries that plants' life cycles are speeding up。

Fleming擔心植物的生命週期正在加快之中。

Her concern is that their insect pollinators won't be able to cope with the Earth's changing habitats。

她所擔憂的是昆蟲傳播花粉的速率將無法與其棲息地變化的情況相適應。

Unlike animals, plants can't just get up and move。

“與動物不同，植物無法移動。”

'If they end up in a climate that's too warm, well, they'll just die.'

“如果它們生長的環境變得越來越熱，它們最終只能死亡。”