A new study has found, climate change and diminishing ice cover is causing spring to come sooner to some plant species in the Arctic, while other species are delaying their emergence amid warming winters. <br/><br/>The study covers 12 years of observations at a West Greenland field site near Russell Glacier, a dynamic front protruding from the massive inland ice sheet that covers most of the island. Each year from early May to late June, researchers looked daily for the first signs of growth in plots enclosing individual plant species.<br/><br/>Led by the University of California, Davis in the US, researchers found that warming winters and springs associated with declining arctic sea ice cover created a mixture of speed demons, slowpokes and those in between. <br/><br/>One sedge species now springs out a full 26 days earlier than it did a decade ago. This was the greatest increase in the timing of emergence the researchers have seen on record in the Arctic. The study was published in the journal Biology Letters.