This is scientific American's 60 second science. I'm Christopher in Tagata.

The Earth's temperature is rising and as it does, springtime phenomena, like the first bloom of flowers,

are getting earlier and earlier.

But rising temperatures aren't the only factor.

Urban light pollution is also quickening the coming of spring.

So temperature and light are really contributing

to a double whammy of making everything earlier.

Richard French Constant, an entomologist

at the University of Exeter.

He and his colleagues compiled 13 years of data from citizen scientists in the UK who

tracked the first bud burst of four common trees. And it turns out light pollution from

street lights and cities and along roads pushed Budburst a full week earlier.

Way beyond what rising temperatures could achieve.

This disruptive timing can ripple through the ecosystem.

The caterpillars that feed on trees are trying to match the hatching of their eggs to the timing of

bud bursts because the caterpillars want to feed on the juiciest and least chemically protected leaves.

And it's not just the caterpillars, of course,

that are important, but the knock-on effect

is on nesting birds, which are also trying to hatch their chicks

at the same time that there's the maximum number of caterpillars.

So earlier buds could ultimately affect the survival of birds and beyond.

The findings are in the proceedings of the Royal Society be.

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