Warm winter could have consequences
While human residents of the suburbs have been basking in warm temperatures and a well-earned break from shoveling snow, this unusually balmy winter has lent more fragility to the life cycles of other living things - from plants to coyotes.
The cool, moist air that's normally the trigger of spring growth has caused some flower bulbs and tree buds to leap forward about a month and a half in their maturity, University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator Richard Hentschel said.
And while there's no harm done so far, it raises the stakes for such non-hardy vegetation that the warm winter now carry on into spring without a major relapse. A significant cold snap at the wrong time could rob 2012 of particular flower displays or healthy strawberry, peach and apricot crops, Hentschel said.
Among the minor damage that may be visible later are brown edges on leaves that emerged before the final frost, Hentschel said. There'd be no serious threat to the long-term lives of plants or trees.
A crucial element to the lives of plants - soil - is helped by the normal freezing and thawing cycle, which alleviates compaction. But there have been far fewer such cycles than usual this winter, he said.
The early arrival of warm temperatures could also wreak havoc on the life cycles of certain insect species, especially if they're lulled into becoming active before their food supply returns.
"Flies and spiders have been showing up early," he said.
While spiders are more resilient, particularly vulnerable are field insects like aphids that are blown by the wind from warmer southern areas, he said.
But one way both humans and box elder bugs have benefitted from the warm winter is that it's kept them out of each other's way.
Box elder bugs are brown or black tree insects with reddish markings. They survive the winter by becoming inactive wherever they can find adequate shelter - often in the outer layers of homes. The colder it gets, the deeper inside homes they tend to go.
"Box elder bugs haven't been as big a problem as they've been before," Hentschel said. "With this mild winter, they haven't had to come into our homes."
The warm winter also has created problems for many animal species that hibernate like frogs, snakes and bats, said Chris Anchor, a wildlife biologist for the Cook County Forest Preserve District.
The problems for coldblooded species were easily observable this week. Frogs, salamanders and snakes awoke from their winter slumber but were unable to get back into hibernation mode as temperatures dropped again later in the day, Anchor said.
On Wednesday alone, he came across the dead bodies of 17 snakes in his travels from preserve to preserve.
Though warm-blooded, bats are facing longer-term problems by coming out of hibernation early, before their insect food supply has really returned, Anchor said. They're already burning their stored fat, which will have a negative impact on their reproductive rates later, Anchor said.
"Animals use fat like we use money," he explained. "You want to be as efficient as you can. If you think you're going to expend more energy than you're going to take in, you don't move."
For related reasons, geese have maintained a stronger presence in the Chicago area this winter. Unlike some bird species that go back to specific areas each winter, geese fly only as far as they have to.
The warm weather may create a problem opposite to the bats' for coyotes and white-tailed deer, whose higher nutritional intake this mild winter will actually boost their reproductive rates in the spring.
While this may initially seem like a positive, their territories can support only so many adults and there could be an overpopulation problem down the line, Anchor said.
Though the current warm weather may feel comfortable to people, the animal species that evolved to live in this area have really come to depend on a cold winter for their long-term survival, he said.