No abstract

For species to stay temporally tuned to their environment, they use cues such as the accumulation of degree-days. The relationships between the timing of a phenological event in a population and its environmental cue can be described by a population-level reaction norm. Variation in reaction norms along environmental gradients may either intensify the environmental effects on timing (cogradient variation) or attenuate the effects (countergradient variation). To resolve spatial and seasonal variation in species’ response, we use a unique dataset of 91 taxa and 178 phenological events observed across a network of 472 monitoring sites, spread across the nations of the former Soviet Union. We show that compared to local rates of advancement of phenological events with the advancement of temperature-related cues (i.e., variation within site over years), spatial variation in reaction norms tend to accentuate responses in spring (cogradient variation) and attenuate them in autumn (countergradient variation). As a result, among-population variation in the timing of events is greater in spring and less in autumn than if all populations followed the same reaction norm regardless of location. Despite such signs of local adaptation, overall phenotypic plasticity was not sufficient for phenological events to keep exact pace with their cues—the earlier the year, the more did the timing of the phenological event lag behind the timing of the cue. Overall, these patterns suggest that differences in the spatial versus temporal reaction norms will affect species’ response to climate change in opposite ways in spring and autumn.

We present an extensive, large-scale, long-term and multitaxon database on phenological and climatic variation, involving 506,186 observation dates acquired in 471 localities in Russian Federation, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. the data cover the period 1890-2018, with 96% of the data being from 1960 onwards. The database is rich in plants, birds and climatic events, but also includes insects, amphibians, reptiles and fungi. the database includes multiple events per species, such as the onset days of leaf unfolding and leaf fall for plants, and the days for first spring and last autumn occurrences for birds. The data were acquired using standardized methods by permanent staff of national parks and nature reserves (87% of the data) and members of a phenological observation network (13% of the data). The database is valuable for exploring how species respond in their phenology to climate change. Large-scale analyses of spatial variation in phenological response can help to better predict the consequences of species and community responses to climate change. #A full list of authors and their affiliations appears at the end of the paper. Data DeSCRiptOR OpeNScientific Data | (2020) 7:47 | https://doi.

Four types of Chaffinch rain-calls were found in Ukraine: “rülsch” - a trill signal widely spread in Europe; “hui” - a whistle signal that occurs in North-Western and Central Europe; “Crimean” whistle signal known only from Crimean peninsula and “Caucasian” signal occurring in Caucasus, Asia Minor and Balkans. Sonograms of rendition versions are given for all of the call types. Distribution of dialects of Chaffinch rain-calls in Ukraine was examined. “Rülsch”- dialect occurs at most of the plane Ukraine and Carpathians. Owing to colonizing artificial afforestations in steppe zone this dialect population’s range expanded southward to the coast of the Black and Azov seas. “Hui”-dialect is spread in the Lower Danube region. At the North-Eastern Danube delta Chaffinch’s with “hui”- and “rülsch”- rain-calls are found together and a bird was found that uttered both signals alternately but hybrid signals were not registered. It may attest to recent invasion by “rülsch”- population of Chaffinch’s there. “Crimean” dialect is distributed in mountainous Crimea and in most of the Crimean steppe zone. “Caucasian” rain-call renditions are registered in cases of individual vagrant birds in eastern Crimea and Lower Danube region

Song repertoire of chaffinch F. c. solomkoi subspecies from Crimea was analyzed. We discerned 38 song types in Crimean chaffinches’ repertoire, 27 of them were more frequent. Comparing Crimean chaffinches’ songs with those of nominative subspecies from Eastern Europe showed no common songs. Comparison of individual song elements showed that songs of F. c. solomkoi consisted of 108 elements, of which 18 were distinctive to Crimean birds, 18 were specific to Crimean chaffinches and Carpa-thian F. c. coelebs population while absent in songs of chaffinches from Eastern Europe plains. Comparison of F. c. solomkoi songs with songs of Caucasian subspecies F. c.caucasica revealed no common types of songs. There are certain similarities in song structures between some Crimean chaffinches and hybrid popula-tion of F. c. caucasica and F. c. solomkoi from Northwest Caucasus. Other specifics of vocalization showed drastic differences in rain-call structures of all subspecies and no after-song “kit“ element for Caucasian sub-species