Ohio State University: Global Warming
Global Warming in Your Garden Common Plants Bugs Reveal Important Climate Changes - 07/16/06
Evidence supporting climate change often comes in striking forms, anything from gigantic ozone-layer holes to remote melting glaciers. But signs the planet is getting warmer can be found in familiar places a lot closer to home: say, your flower bed or your tree lawn.
So argues Dan Herms, an Ohio State University entomologist based on the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center's (OARDC) Wooster campus.
Herms coordinates a statewide growing-season monitoring system that predicts when tree and shrub pests will first appear at any given location based on the blooming of ornamental plants.
This "biological calendar" helps nursery growers and gardeners make fewer but more effective pesticide applications. But it also collects key data about plant and insect activity that reveals the occurrence of warmer winters and a significant extension of the growing season.
"We are not talking about changes from one year to the next, but long-term changes," said Herms, also a specialist with Ohio State University Extension. "Winters are getting warmer. Bagworms are a good example to illustrate these changes. These pests of shade trees and woody ornamentals never were a problem north of I-70. But today they are found in northern Ohio as the temperature has gone up during the winter months."
The growing season is starting earlier and ending later, Herms added. A good indicator of this phenomenon is the black vine weevil, which attacks many species of trees, shrubs, vines and flowers and is one of the most damaging and tough-to-control nursery pests in Ohio.
