MadCow wrote:


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I took this on the 24th Feb (about a month too early) tadpoles have
started moving and look ready to hatch. Now the weather's suddenly
going back to normal with sleet and night frosts.


They're probably toast, to use thoroughly inapt cliche.

The most immediate effect of fast climate change is that the flora and
fauna that respond to seasonal temperature changes will get out of synch
with those that respond to seasonal light changes. In the northern
latitudes, even small shifts, on the order of a week or two either way
relative to each other, will mess up the ecology, because in the
northern latitudes those responses are perforce very quick - there isn't
enough mating/growing time otherwise. That's why the people who live in
more temperate climates are less likely to believe that climate change
is happening far quicker than most scenarios predicted. A shift of a
week or two either way makes little difference when it takes a couple of
weeks or longer for the response to occur.

--

Wolf

"Don't believe everything you think." (Maxine)