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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Heat Islands, Climate Change and Wisconsin Wildlife

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Wednesday, June 22, 2016   

MADISON, Wis. -- Urban-dwelling plants typically get a head start on the growing season compared with their rural counterparts because of the urban heat-island effect, which causes cities to be warmer than the surrounding countryside.

According to researcher Samuel Zipper of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Water Sustainability and Climate Project, the lead author of a study just published in Environmental Research Letters, climate change and urban heat islands can be harmful to migratory wildlife.

"You can imagine a migrating bird coming up from the Southern Hemisphere or something like that is really banking on having some particular type of vegetation here in South Central Wisconsin on their way up north," he said, "that might not be there at the right time any more."

According to the study, throwing off the timing of the cycle of the spring green-up can have cascading effects on a number of urban ecosystems. It also found that the growing season typically lasts a week longer in the densest areas of a city.

Zipper said not all the effects of urban heat zones are harmful to wildlife.

"It may actually help some critters that are kind of more generalists or pretty hardy species," he said, "so things like deer or squirrels that kind of eat anything, they're going to have greenery a lot sooner, so that'll maybe help them get through the winter a little better."

Zipper said it's clear that every little bit of greenness within a city helps minimize the urban heat-island effect.

The study is a step toward better understanding how urban development can impact not only the growing season but other natural cycles like those of water and carbon, Zipper said, adding that one of the questions yet to be answered is the full impact of changing the length of the growing season.

"Is this going to significantly affect how much water urban vegetation are using," he said, "and is that going to potentially cause increases is water stress during drought periods or something like that for trees and grass, which can have a big impact on things like runoff getting into the lakes."

Read more about the study at news.wisc.edu.


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