Citizen watch on climate | Noosa Today

By Margaret Maccoll

Jacarandas are blooming earlier, magpies are breeding earlier and Asian geckos are migrating southward.

These are just a few of the ways already recorded that show how plants and animals in Australia are responding to climate change.

Under an ambitious ClimateWatch program an army of citizen scientists is being enlisted to record climate changes Australia wide.

Locally Sunshine Coast Council environmental education officer and University of the Sunshine Coast researcher Dr Lisa Ryan is managing the program.

In a recent talk at Noosa Parks Association Dr Ryan told guests about the program that focuses its observations on about 180 indicator species.

Dr Ryan said the program aimed to understand…