Phenological tracking enables positive species responses to climate change

Cleland, Elsa E.; Allen, Jenica M.; Crimmins, Theresa M.; Dunne, Jennifer A.; Pau, Stéphanie; Travers, Steven E.; Zavaleta, Erika S.; Wolkovich, Elizabeth M.

doi:10.1890/11-1912.1

Cited by 288 publications

(267 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…These phenological shifts are generally attributed to warming, which is typically more pronounced at higher altitudes (28). The capacity of species to adapt their phenology to climate change is important for their survival, in particular when species are unable to migrate to other habitats with suitable climate (29). Studies have shown that variation in phenology allows for the coexistence of species through temporal complementarity (30).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity promotes primary productivity and growing season lengthening at the landscape scale

Oehri

Schmid

Schaepman‐Strub

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

122

147

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Experiments have shown positive biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships in small plots with model communities established from species pools typically comprising few dozen species. Whether patterns found can be extrapolated to complex, nonexperimental, real-world landscapes that provide ecosystem services to humans remains unclear. Here, we combine species inventories from a large-scale network of 447 1-km 2 plots with remotely sensed indices of primary productivity (years 2000-2015). We show that landscape-scale productivity and its temporal stability increase with the diversity of plants and other taxa. Effects of biodiversity indicators on productivity were comparable in size to effects of other important drivers related to climate, topography, and land cover. These effects occurred in plots that integrated different ecosystem types (i.e., metaecosystems) and were consistent over vast environmental and altitudinal gradients. The BEF relations we report are as strong or even exceed the ones found in small-scale experiments, despite different community assembly processes and a species pool comprising nearly 2,000 vascular plant species. Growing season length increased progressively over the observation period, and this shift was accelerated in more diverse plots, suggesting that a large species pool is important for adaption to climate change. Our study further implies that abiotic global-change drivers may mediate ecosystem functioning through biodiversity changes.ecosystem function and services | EVI and NDVI land surface phenology | large spatial scale | nonexperimental, real-world ecosystems | plant, bird, and butterfly species richness

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity promotes primary productivity and growing season lengthening at the landscape scale

Oehri

Schmid

Schaepman‐Strub

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

122

147

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“…We found that especially higher nitrogen and potassium content were linked to stronger phenological shifts as well as higher Δ 13 C and thus lower water‐use efficiency. Nitrogen, being related to enzyme content and photosynthesis rates (Bucher et al., 2018; Evans, 1989), had highest importance for the ability to shift FFD which strengthens the claim of shifts in FFD being directly related to plant performance (Cleland et al., 2012; Willis et al., 2008). In our study, we found that SLA was related to less pronounced shifts in FFD which is opposing findings by König et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Advances in flowering phenology might, however, lead to increased fecundity if there is no mismatch with pollinating insects (Baeten, Sercu, Bonte, Vanhellemont, & Verheyen, 2015; Sparks, Jeffree, & Jeffree, 2000). Overall, studies confirmed that the performance and abundance of species with an advanced phenology increased, whereas the performance of the others decreased (Baeten et al., 2015; Cleland et al., 2012; Hulme, 2011; Willis, Ruhfel, Primack, Miller‐Rushing, & Davis, 2008). Studies conducted along elevational gradients found significant changes in leaf phenology of tree species and species‐specific differences in temperature sensitivity (Schuster, Estrella, & Menzel, 2014; Schuster, Kirchner, Jakobi, & Menzel, 2014; Vitasse, Porté, et al., 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Traits and climate are associated with first flowering day in herbaceous species along elevational gradients

Bucher

König

Menzel

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Phenological responses to changing temperatures are known as “fingerprints of climate change,” yet these reactions are highly species specific. To assess whether different plant characteristics are related to these species‐specific responses in flowering phenology, we observed the first flowering day (FFD) of ten herbaceous species along two elevational gradients, representing temperature gradients. On the same populations, we measured traits being associated with (1) plant performance (specific leaf area), (2) leaf biochemistry (leaf C, N, P, K, and Mg content), and (3) water‐use efficiency (stomatal pore area index and stable carbon isotopes concentration). We found that as elevation increased, FFD was delayed for all species with a highly species‐specific rate. Populations at higher elevations needed less temperature accumulation to start flowering than populations of the same species at lower elevations. Surprisingly, traits explained a higher proportion of variance in the phenological data than elevation. Earlier flowering was associated with higher water‐use efficiency, higher leaf C, and lower leaf P content. In addition to that, the intensity of shifts in FFD was related to leaf N and K. These results propose that traits have a high potential in explaining phenological variations, which even surpassed the effect of temperature changes in our study. Therefore, they have a high potential to be included in future analyses studying the effects of climate change and will help to improve predictions of vegetation changes.

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“…While many studies make it abundantly clear that ongoing climatic warming has affected the phenology (Parmesan and Yohe 2003, Menzel et al 2006, Parmesan 2006, Amano et al 2010, Morin et al 2010, performance (Rossi et al 2004, Cleland et al 2012, and distributions (Parmesan and Yohe 2003, Walther 2010, Chen et al 2011) of species, less appreciated is the fact that climatic change might also alter both intra-and interspecific interactions (Tylianakis et al 2008). Predictions related to the effects of ongoing climatic change largely consider the direct effects of climate on species without taking into account how interactions between species might also affect their responses to climatic change (Davis et al 1998, Araú jo and Rahbek 2006, Buckley et al 2010.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions in a warmer world: effects of experimental warming, conspecific density, and herbivory on seedling dynamics

et al. 2014

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Abstract. Many effects of a changing climate for organisms, populations, and ecosystems are already apparent. Less studied are the effects of increases in temperature on species interactions. While warming may potentially alter interactions among species, species interactions may also mediate individual species responses to ongoing climatic change. In this experiment we manipulated temperature in field-based, open-top chambers for three years to examine the relationship between biotic interactions and climatic warming on the population dynamics of seedlings of Quercus alba. We investigated the effect of warming on rates of insect herbivory on Q. alba seedlings. Additionally, we assessed the relative effects of increasing temperature, insect herbivory, and conspecific density on seedling survival. We found two unexpected results. First, we observed a negative relationship between temperature and levels of insect herbivory during each year of the experiment. Second, higher levels of herbivory were associated with higher rates of survival to the second year of the study. Although we never detected a direct effect of conspecific density on seedling survival, herbivory and conspecific seedling density did interact to influence Q. alba seedling survival early in the experiment. Taken together, our results indicate species responses to climatic warming may be contingent on intra-and interspecific interactions, sometimes in complicated and counter-intuitive ways.

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Phenological tracking enables positive species responses to climate change

Cited by 288 publications

References 38 publications

Biodiversity promotes primary productivity and growing season lengthening at the landscape scale

Biodiversity promotes primary productivity and growing season lengthening at the landscape scale

Traits and climate are associated with first flowering day in herbaceous species along elevational gradients

Interactions in a warmer world: effects of experimental warming, conspecific density, and herbivory on seedling dynamics

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