Greenwave movement to track arrival of Spring across Ireland

Life

Photography competition Greenwave has launched it’s 2009 event.

Organised by Discover Science and Engineering, the Greenwave project is a mass science experiment for Irish national schools which involves tracking the movement of spring across Ireland. Students’ record sighting dates of six species that are indicators of spring onto the Greenwave website and the results are mapped onto the website to see whether spring moves from north to south or inland from coast to centre.

Every year a green wave, which is caused by the opening of buds on trees and hedges, can be seen moving across Europe from outer space in springtime. It begins in the south of Europe in February and it moves up across Europe as temperatures rise. The phenomenon travels at approximately the same speed as humans walk – four miles per hour – hence the description of a green wave. According to this, spring would take three weeks to walk across Ireland from Mizen Head to Malin head.

School children will be asked to register on the Greenwave website and record their findings online. In addition to the species examined in 2008 – ash, horse chestnut and hawthorn trees, the primrose, the swallow and frogspawn – participants are now being asked to also record the rainfall throughout the months of February to May.

The information gathered will help to examine whether climate change is causing flowers to bloom earlier and how Irish wildlife is affected as a result. The data will be plotted on the Greenwave website (www.greenwave.ie) where visitors will be able to view the findings and track nature’s progress over time.

Each winning school will receive a digital camera and printer.

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