Influence of phylogeny and abiotic factors varies across early and late reproductive phenology of HimalayanRhododendrons

Abstract

Understanding the influence of evolutionary history on species-specific phenological events of high-altitude plants and their sensitivity to the abiotic factors has gained importance mainly in the context of climate change. However, the majority of phenology studies across altitudinal gradient are carried out on flowering, whereas other reproductive phenology events are seldom considered. We tested the role of abiotic factors and evolutionary history on the reproductive phenology traits of high-altitude Rhododendron community which comprised of 10 locally aggregated species in Kyongnosla Alpine Sanctuary, Sikkim Himalaya. The study was carried out from 2013 to 2015 across an altitude gradient of 3400-4230 m a.s.l. We generated dated phylogenetic hypotheses to test for phylogenetic signal in reproductive phenology events, and its durations across 10 Rhododendron species and also among groups of species distributed at every 100 m altitude. Comparative phylogenetic methods were used to explore the relationship between phenology traits and abiotic variables such as daylength and temperature. The early phenology events such as budding, flowering, and initial fruiting, which occurred during the favorable month of the year, exhibited strong phylogenetic signal and were mainly associated with daylength and temperature. In contrast, the later events such as immature fruiting, mature fruiting, and fruit dehiscence, which occurred during the later months of the year, showed a weak phylogenetic signal and were mostly associated with daylength. With the increase in altitude, we found a decreasing trend of phylogenetic signal for the early phenology events and later events did not show a significant trend. Our results suggest that only early events are constrained by evolutionary history; thus, the closely related species share the similar timing of the early phenology events. Also, the role of shared evolutionary history in phenological trait sensitivity to the abiotic factors reduces from early to the late phenology events. This approach can be extended to other representative plant families of the Himalayan region to better understand the response of reproductive traits to abiotic factors in deep evolutionary time.

Strong phylogenetic signals in global plant bioclimatic envelopes

“…Most phylogenetic analyses of plant functional traits or habitat preferences focus on phenological variables (e.g., Basnett et al, 2019; Davies et al, 2013) or characteristics of the environment such as soil pH or nitrogen levels (e.g., Schreeg et al, 2010). Of the few studies that incorporate climate parameters, some report evidence of phylogenetic signal in climatic variables, such as temperature and precipitation, at the genus or family level (Steinbauer et al, 2016; Xu et al, 2019), whereas others report little or non‐significant signals (Koski & Ashman, 2016; Li et al, 2017; Liu et al, 2015) at that level.…”

Environmental Education for Dwelling as a Sustainable Unit

“…One of the fundamental bases of the sustainable management of Polylepis forests is the maintenance of natural regeneration, that is not the result solely of anthropogenic use since it can be strongly influenced by the interaction of the biotic and abiotic components of the forest ecosystem, such as geomorphological, temperature and rainfall factors (Kessler 2006;Rada et al 2009;Leigue 2011;Mejía et al 2018). The sustainable management requires that species regenerate naturally to maintain their populations and ensuring the future productivity of the forest (Bawa and Seidler 1998) The phenology stages are associated mainly to abiotic and intrinsic factors of the plants (Lobo et al 2003;Domic et al 2013;Carnwath and Nelson 2017;Basnett et al 2019). Hensen (2011) fruiting stages from January to April, it would be favored by higher rainfall in prior months.…”

“…Hensen (2011) fruiting stages from January to April, it would be favored by higher rainfall in prior months. In that sense, the rainfall will affect flowers production, fruiting and subsequent seed production (Domic et al 2013;Basnett et al 2019). The synchronization of this process, would favor the recruitment and the viability of seedlings for natural regeneration.…”

“…Banco de plântulas 59,60,61,65,66,68,70 C Coagulants 37,38,40,41,42,43,44 Coleta de lixo 17 Educação ambiental 16,17,18,19,20,21,22 Electroplating 37,38,41,42,43,44 Environmental 1,2,3,6,8,9,10,12,13,14,16,17,37,38,43,44,45,50 Estrato herbáceo-subarbustivo 59 I Incineración 24,25,27,33,34,35 Industrial process 38…”

Evidence for divergence in phenology over morphology in response to limiting similarity in montane communities of Rhododendron

“…Studies of Rhododendron co‐occurrence in relation to phenology, traits and relatedness have been carried out at sites elsewhere in the Hengduan Mountains (Hart & Salick, 2018; Zou et al, 2021) and the eastern Himalaya (Basnett et al, 2021; Basnett, Ganesan, et al, 2019; Basnett, Nagaraju, et al, 2019). While the methods of these studies varied and differed from ours, some pertinent comparisons can be made.…”