Fly-Fishing on Montana's Big Hole River, Signs of Climate Change Are All Around

Anyone who takes fly-fishing seriously behaves like a scientist. These anglers are biologists, knowledgeable in what's eating what, when and how. They are hydrologists, studying riffles and stream flow. They are naturalists, observing clouds and sunlight and the circulation of air as their rods flick back and forth across the big sky. They are, in a sense, climate scientists. And some, but not all, are deeply concerned about the effects of a warming climate on the cold-water species that inhabit blue-ribbon trout streams.

Nature is a powerful economic driver here, and
 livelihoods depend on cold water and healthy
 fish. People know it’s warming, but few will
say that's climate change

But to the extent that they act as climate scientists, partisan politics plays a role in many anglers' understanding of climate change. Here in Montana, with pristine rivers that are home to some of the best fly-fishing in the country, a majority of votes went for President Trump—and climate change is considered by many of them to be a natural phenomenon beyond human control. Nonetheless, climate change is having a profound influence on fly-fishing, from the timing of insect hatches to the long-term survival of the fish that give this sport its meaning.

Read the story by Meera Subramanian  from Inside Climate News - “Fly-Fishing on Montana's Big Hole River, Signs of Climate Change Are All Around.”

Outwitting Climate Change with a Plant ‘Dimmer’?

For many plant species, such as the thale
cress, which is often used in research, but
 also for food crops such as corn, rice
and wheat, there are now initiatives currently
 mapping the genome of many subspecies
and varieties.

Plants possess molecular mechanisms that prevent them from blooming in winter. Once the cold of win-ter has passed, they are deactivated. However, if it is still too cold in spring, plants adapt their blooming behavior accordingly. Scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have discovered genetic changes for this adaptive behavior. In light of the temperature changes resulting from climate change, this may come in useful for securing the production of food in the future.

Everyone knows that many plant species bloom at different times in spring. The time at which a plant blooms in spring does not follow the calendar, but is instead determined by environmental factors such as temperature and day length. Biologists have discovered that plants recognize these environmental factors via genetically determined programs and adapt their growth accordingly.

Read the Science and Technology Research News story - “Outwitting Climate Change with a Plant ‘Dimmer’?”