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Plant phenology or life-history patterns change seasonally as plants grow, mature, flower, and produce fruit and seed. Plant phenology follows seasonal patterns, yet variation may occur due to annual differences in the timing of rainfall and ambient temperature shifts. Foliage growth, flower, fruit, and seed production are important aspects of plant population dynamics and food resource availability for animals. The purpose of this study is to assess phenological patterns of plants across a series of biotic communities that represent an environmental moisture gradient. These communities all in the Chihuahuan Desert include: creosote bush shrubland, black grama grassland, and blue grama grassland. Plant phenology is recorded for all plant species across 4 replicate 200 m transects at each of the 3 habitat sites. Plant phenology measurements are taken once every month from February through October. The first ten individuals (or ten representative individuals) of each plant species encountered along each transect are assessed for life-history status. Data from the site P and J were only collected in 2000 and 2001 and are included in this data set.
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Extreme drought disrupts plant phenology: Insights from 35 years of cloud forest data in Venezuela
Abstract The potential effects of climate change on plant reproductive phenology include asynchronies with pollinators and reductions in plant fitness, leading to extinction and loss of ecosystem function. In particular, plant phenology is sensitive to extreme weather events, which are occurring with increasing severity and frequency in recent decades and are linked to anthropogenic climate change and shifts in atmospheric circulation. For 15 plant species in a Venezuelan cloud forest, we documented dramatic changes in monthly flower and fruit community composition over a 35‐year time series, from 1983 to 2017, and these changes were linked directly to higher temperatures, lower precipitation, and decreased soil water availability. The patterns documented here do not mirror trends in temperate zones but corroborate results from the Asian tropics. More intense droughts are predicted to occur in the region, which will cause dramatic changes in flower and fruit availability.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2114793
- PAR ID:
- 10410191
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Ecology
- Volume:
- 104
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 0012-9658
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Plant phenology or life-history patterns change seasonally as plants grow, mature, flower, and produce fruit and seed. Plant phenology follows seasonal patterns, yet variation may occur due to annual differences in the timing of rainfall and ambient temperature shifts. Foliage growth, flower, fruit, and seed production are important aspects of plant population dynamics and food resource availability for animals. The purpose of this study is to assess phenological patterns of plants across a series of biotic communities that represent an environmental moisture gradient. These communities all in the Chihuahuan Desert include: creosote bush shrubland, black grama grassland, and blue grama grassland. Plant phenology is recorded for all plant species across 4 replicate 200 m transects at each of the 3 habitat sites. Plant phenology measurements are taken once every month from February through October. The first ten individuals (or ten representative individuals) of each plant species encountered along each transect are assessed for life-history status. Data from the site P and J were only collected in 2000 and 2001 and are included in this data set.more » « less
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