Light Pollution Is Waking Trees Up Early for Spring

Light pollution in the United Kingdom was linked to early "budburst," or the date that green leaves just begin to emerge from a budding tree. Later-budding trees such as the European ash (Fraxinus excelsior) were most affected by light pollution, researchers report today (June 28) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "It was an amazing result, really," study researcher Richard ffrench-Constant, an etymologist at the University of Exeter, told Live Science.