As the cherry blossoms bloom earlier than usual, many of you are planning to see the flowers this weekend. While it's nice to see pretty flowers early, early flowering can be detrimental to bees and endangered plants.

[Jeong Cheol-ui/Professor, Department of New Water Medicine, National Andong University: Many wild bees overwinter in the ground or build nests in the ground, but the temperature outside in spring increases quickly, but the temperature inside the ground increases slowly, so it takes longer for wild bees to wake up. That's why the flowers bloom first and the wild bees are likely to appear late. The wild bees wake up, but when I see them, the flowers are falling.]

Wild bees that wake up after the flowers have already lost have fewer opportunities to reproduce due to lack of food, and if wild bees that breed once a year fail to reproduce, the density of wild bees decreases significantly the following year.

Plants pollinated by wild bees and endangered plants will also be affected.

Flowers that bloom early this year could have a bad effect on next year.

[Jeong Cheol-ui/Professor, Department of New Water Medicine, National Andong University: In the year when cherry blossoms bloom early, there are many experiences where the situation in the wheat garden was bad after May. Usually, when the cherry blossoms bloom early, it means that spring has come early, and there is a possibility that abnormal low temperatures may occur in May, or that the drought in the spring will continue. You should also consider the possibility that the flower nectar may not be produced well during the time when large-scale wheat garden plants are in bloom.]

May in particular is when pollen-carrying pollen-borne insects are most active, but because of the warmer temperatures and early spring blooms, there is now a shortage of insects that help them reproduce, so plants miss out on opportunities to reproduce.

[Cheol Jeong/Professor, Department of New Water Medicine, National Andong University: One thing we overlook is that these effects are not very visible, and when they are visible, they are visible when they have already severed out of control.]

In fact, changes in the ecosystem are bound to affect humans as well.

Jeong Cheol-ui/Professor, Department of New Water Medicine, National Andong University: It is estimated that about 1% of Korea's agricultural production is produced by pollinators. If the pollinators disappear or the pollinator system is disturbed, our favorite apples, strawberries, and melons are likely to be underproduced, reduced in production, or poor quality of the crops produced. (Then) the price of agricultural products will go up. Consumers will have to pay higher prices to buy produce. So overall, it looks like we could now reach a food crisis.]

This means that not only humans, but also birds and wildlife that feed on pollinated fruit become scarce, putting biodiversity at risk.

Due to the rising temperature, the spring flowering time continues to accelerate.

The beautiful scenery created by the simultaneous blooming of various flowers may be the whisper of flowers announcing the crisis of humanity.