Wildflower superbloom sweeps across California, as experts highlight impacts from climate change

WALNUT CREEK, California: After years of drought, a heavy rainy season in California has created a natural phenomenon known as a superbloom, which occurs about once a decade, according to experts.

The colourful spectacle, in which an unusually high number of wildflowers bloom at the same time, is an increasingly rare reminder of the planet's changing climate.

Research ecologist Daniel Winkler from the US Geological Survey's Southwest Biological Science Center, told CNA: "California, in particular, was going through this period of prolonged drought, and the massive amount of rain that's fallen on California over the past few months has really accelerated and given a chance for a lot of those native wildflower species to erupt on the landscape."

The phenomenon has created a buzz on social media and at wildflower sites, which have seen a surge in visitors. It has also brought attention to the impact of climate change and human activity on such sites.

SUPERBLOOM ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Dr Winkler recently led a study showing that the visitor numbers to some of those parks peak during the end of the winter growing season, when the wildflowers reach their peak bloom.

“Visitation more than doubles during the wettest years, and it dramatically declines during the drier years,” he said.

This means that parks such as Mount Diablo State Park, located about an hour east of San Francisco, have been drawing significantly larger crowds.

It is, however, the flowers blanketing some of California’s typically barren deserts that have really caught people’s attention.

This year’s California superbloom made headlines around the world when satellite images of carpets of wildflowers, as seen from space, went viral on the Internet, drawing even more visitors to see the superbloom for themselves.

HEALTH OF VEGETATION

With droughts expected to become more extreme due to climate change, concerns have arisen over the health of the wildflowers, and other vegetation in parts of the US west.

Dr Winkler said recent studies have predicted that such megadroughts are likely to occur multiple times throughout the remainder of the 21st century.

“Unfortunately, these climate extremes in the southwest pose a potential challenge to the conservation of native wildflowers on our public lands,” he said.

Apart from the evolving climate, large swathes of wildflower habitat have also been lost to human activity, including residential development, agriculture and mining.

Some hope that the superbloom craze is not just a passing hype, but an event that will encourage people to think about their impact on the natural world. 

Ms Sharon Peterson, an interpreter in Mount Diablo State Park, told CNA: "I think the more people that really realise what is out there … and realise how special it is in the parks, I think that's a benefit to all of us."