Mother Nature has been treating some people to the first signs of spring earlier than usual in recent years, according to a new study. A team of researchers led by R.B. Myneni, a geographer at Boston University, found that plants were sprouting and trees were budding as much as a week earlier than they did 25 years ago in latitudes north of a line running through Boston, Bordeaux, and Vladivostok. Other regions are seeing those tender shoots a bit earlier too. The advent of such early growth by land plants was determined by a study of satellite data from 1981 to 1991, and, the scientists write, it is more evidence that surface air temperatures are going up. As a result of the early spring, the growing season may be lengthening, they add. The researchers say that the trend may be a result of unexplained natural causes, but they conclude that it is consistent with the predicted effects of global warming due to the burning of fossil fuels. (The magazine may be found at your library or newsstand.)

© 1997 The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc.