On the QT | The Official Newsletter of GWA April-May 2016 | Page 22

SUSTAINABILITY

MARCIA TATE

Coping with climate disruption
What to do when the only constant is change

P H O T O C O U R T E S Y M A R C I A TAT E

Streamside erosion due to extreme rain events
undercuts trees and shrubs, and can jeopardize
public safety. It’s costly to repair or stabilize, and
is a source of downstream problems with accumulating sediment and nutrient runoff.

N

ow that the evidence of human-induced climate change has been
clearly documented, the only facet
of our rapidly shifting climate that we
can predict with any certainty may be
change. “The rate of change is unprecedented. It’s happening so quickly, the
question is whether plants and animals can
keep up,” cautions Jake Weltzin, ecologist
at the U.S. Geological Survey and executive
director of the USA National Phenology
Network in Tucson, Arizona.
The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, which
offers data and tools to manage climate-related risks and opportunities, reports that
warming this century is likely to occur 10
times faster than during any climatic shift in
the past 65 million years.

22

HOW WILL OUR GARDENS
BE AFFECTED?
Warmer winters, hotter summers, extreme
weather events and elevated atmospheric
carbon dioxide levels are affecting everything from USDA Hardiness Zones to
growing vegetables. The recent western
drought brought Lake Mead to the lowest
level since it was built, while heavy downpours, record rains and rising sea levels
pose growing challenges to life in the
Northeast. We’re seeing a disruption in
relationships between migrating pollinators
and their forage sources that may ultimately affect our own food supply.
Phenology, the study of cyclic and seasonal
natural phenomena, is a leading indicator
of climate change. The USA National Phe-