Danish researches have found that Greenland’s Arctic spring arrives just over two weeks ealier on average now than it did a decade ago. The trend influences not only the icecap, but the region’s ecosystem as well.

As plants flower earlier due to the milder conditions birds and other animals are struggling to keep up. The egg-laying of birds has moved forward as well, but in the long term the ecosystem as it is now might be destabilized by the spring coming even earlier.

While an extension of the short summer season appears to be a benefit to local organisms at first it may eventually let more southern species move in. That would increase competition for food and might drive existing species to extinction.

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