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

Abstract

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.

Flowering patterns change along elevational gradients and relate to life-history strategies in 29 herbaceous species

“…Shifts in flowering phenology resulting from changing abiotic conditions have frequently been recorded and are highly species-specific (Menzel et al 2006a;Bock et al 2014;Bucher et al 2018;König et al 2018). A good understanding of species-specific changes in first flowering day (FFD) has already been achieved (Fitter et al 1995;Bock et al 2014;Bucher et al 2018;König et al 2018), yet the end of flowering (last flowering day, LFD) and flowering duration (FD) are not well studied (but see Rathcke and Lacey 1985;Bock et al 2014;Trunschke and Stöcklin 2017). However, the latter two phenological stages strongly affect pollination and reproductive success and are, therefore, crucial stages in the life-history of plant species.…”

“…Few studies are available focussing on the effect of lifehistory strategies on first flowering day (Fitter and Fitter 2002;Bucher et al 2018;König et al 2018). Not many analysed the relation between fundamental life-history strategies such as leaf persistence (evergreen vs. summer green), pollination syndrome (insect-vs. self-or wind-pollination) or reproduction type (sexual vs. vegetative).…”

“…Explaining differences in species-specific patterns of flowering phenology is key to understanding and predicting changes in ecosystem functioning in response to environmental change. As data on FFD, LFD and FD measured on the same population are scarce, this study was conducted on 29 species, located along two elevational gradients, which offers the possibility to observe changes caused by differing environmental conditions (Körner 2007;Vitasse et al 2009;Schuster et al 2014;Bucher et al 2018). On all populations, we monitored FFD, LFD and FD including also second flowering events in the northern limestone Alps in two consecutive years and addressed the following questions:…”

Special issue in honour of Prof. Reto J. Strasser - Seasonal variation and trade-off between frost resistance and photosynthetic performance in woody species

“…They are quicker and simpler to describe photosynthetic performance than measuring photosynthetic rates (Strasser and Srivastava 1995, Strasser et al 2000, Bucher et al 2018a. Chl fluorescence has been proven to indicate plant stress, such as ozone stress (Clark et al 2000), water stress (Živčák et al 2008), temperature stress, such as frost or heat (Neuner et al 1999, Maxwell and Johnson 2000, Neuner and Pramsohler 2006, Sharma et al 2015, Bucher et al 2018c, as well as the onset of autumn senescence (Holland et al 2014).…”

Recovery of Mediterranean steppe vegetation after cultivation: Legacy effects on plant composition, soil properties and functional traits

“…Intraspecific variation patterns in plant functional traits are a major determinant of the ability to respond to and evolve with climate change and changing environmental conditions (Bucher et al., , ; Laforest‐Lapointe, Martínez‐Vilalta, & Retana, ; Nicotra et al., ). In some cases, trait variability can even be more important than particular trait values: species showing high functional variability may successfully re‐establish because they manage to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Albert, Grassein, Schurr, Vieilledent, & Violle, ; Jung, Violle, Mondy, Hoffmann, & Muller, ).…”