Spring is arriving in the Arctic more than two weeks earlier than it did just a decade ago, according to sightings of birds, insects and plants.

Flowering, egg laying and the emergence of insects are taking place 14½ days earlier in the year on average than they did a decade ago.

Several species have begun their spring activity more than 30 days earlier and a type of midge has been seen 50 days earlier than the 1995 average.

The shift in spring’s start in the Arctic is blamed on global warming but had never previously been measured.

Researchers turned to phenology, the study of when in the year wildlife activity is seen, to measure the impact of global warming on the Arctic because shifts in timings are considered one of the clearest and most rapid signals of change.

The findings, from Zackenberg in northeast Greenland, show that animals and plants are being affected more dramatically in the Arctic than previously suspected, where temperatures are rising almost twice as fast as in most of the rest of the world.

Toke Høye, of the University of Aarhus in Denmark, said: “We were particularly surprised to see that the trends were so strong when considering that the entire summer is very short in the high Arctic.

“Our study confirms what many people already think, that the seasons are changing and it is not just one or two warm years but a strong trend seen over a decade.”

Arctic wildlife activity is closely linked to the seasonal melting of snow and ice, which advanced 14.6 days from 1995 to 2005. The study looked at the behaviour of six species of plants, three birds and twelve types of insects and other arthropods.

In northern Europe plants are flowering, on average, 2.5 days earlier per decade, while plants and animals globally are responding to spring 5.1 days earlier in the year. In Britain there has been a seven-day advance in the past 50 years.

Insects, including butterflies and wasps, showed the biggest reaction to the changing temperature levels, with seven types being seen more than 20 days earlier in 2005 than they did in 1995. However, one species of spider appeared up to 25 days late.

Of the three bird species, dunlin and sanderlin produced their clutches about a week earlier while the ruddy turnstone laid more than ten days earlier. All six plant species flowered earlier than they did a decade ago, with white Arctic bell-heather, Cassiope tetragona, the most advanced at an average of more than 20 days.

In their report, published in the journal Current Biology, the scientists said that the rapid changes over a decade illustrated “how easily” wildlife behaviour could be affected by temperature changes.

Such rapid change in the Arctic climate, they cautioned, could threaten the survival of animals and plants. The scientists said: “Temperatures are currently increasing at nearly double the global average and parts of the Arctic will experience even more dramatic climate changes due to reductions in the extent of sea ice.”

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