Urbanisation induces early flowering: evidence from Platanus acerifolia and Prunus cerasus

Abstract

The effect of towns on plant phenology, i.e. advancement of spring development compared with a rural environment, via the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon, has been shown for many towns in many countries. This work combines experimental and observational methodology to provide a better and deeper view of climatic habitat in an urban context with a view to understanding the relationship between plant development and urban climate on the intra-urban scale (by taking into account town structure). A dense network of 17 meteorological stations was set up in Rennes, France, enabling us to identify and quantify climatic changes associated with the UHI. Meanwhile, phenological observations were made during early spring (March and April) in 2005 on Platanus acerifolia and Prunus cerasus to study the relationship between climatic and phenological data. The results show that there is both a climatic gradient and a developmental gradient corresponding to the type of urbanisation in the town of Rennes. The town influences plant phenology by reducing the diurnal temperature range and by increasing the minimum temperature as one approaches the town centre. The influence of ground cover type (plants or buildings) on development is also shown. The developmental phases of preflowering and flowering are influenced to differing extents by climatic variables. The period during which climatic variables are effective before a given developmental phase varies considerably. The preflowering phases are best correlated with the mean of the minimum air temperature for the 15-day period before the observation, whereas flowering appears to be more dependent on the mean of the daily diurnal temperature range for the 8 days preceding the observation.

Using phenology to assess urban heat islands in tropical and temperate regions

“…Therefore, we also found slightly stronger correlations with mean nighttime temperature than with mean temperature (exception > 50% leaves unfolded) and no statistically significant correlation with maximum temperature. This is in accordance with Wielgolaski (1999) and Mimet et al (2009) 38 37 37 37 37 37 37 ui, urban index; T m , mean temperature; T night , mean nighttime temperature; T max , maximum temperature; DTR, diurnal temperature range; RH, relative humidity; a, absolute humidity, in March (=3), August (=8) and September (=9); BBCH 61, beginning of flowering; BBCH 65, full flowering; BBCH 10, mouse-ear stage; BBCH 15, >50% of leaves unfolded; n, number of sites; P , significance, bold values: significant coefficients at the 5% level; bold and italic values: significant coefficients at the 10% level.…”

“…The fact that UHI is greater for minimum than for maximum temperatures is well documented in existing literature (Landsberg, 1981;Baker et al, 2002;Mimet et al, 2009;Shustack et al, 2009), and was also shown in our study of Campinas and Munich. Furthermore, relative and absolute humidity were significantly lower in urban than rural Munich (−5.8% and −0.1 g m −3 , respectively).…”

“…There are plenty of studies dealing with plant development in urban areas of Europe (e.g. Zacharias, 1972;Baumgartner et al, 1984;Bernhofer, 1991;Lakatos and Gulyás, 2003;Mimet et al, 2009;Jochner et al, 2011;Jochner et al, 2012a), North America (e.g. White et al, 2002;Zhang et al, 2004) and Asia (e.g.…”

Use of overburden waste for London plane (Platanus × acerifolia) growth: the role of plant growth promoting microbial consortia

“…Platanus × acerifolia is very tolerant to numerous abiotic stresses such as limited root space, unfavourable soil conditions, drought, air pollution, urban climate (Mimet et al 2009) and exhibits high accumulation capacity of heavy metals (Ivanová et al 2007, Kang et al 2016 (Pilotti et al 2014). Considering the prevalence of plane trees in urban areas all over the world it is important to develop suitable measures to prevent or restrict the pathogens.…”

The Use of River Sediments for Plant Nursery in the Framework of the LIFE+ project CLEANSED

“…The aim of this study is to present data about plant growth monitoring of these plant species cultivated in three different mixture of agronomic soil and decontaminated river sediments and analyze the relationship with air temperature and soil type. Several studies assessed that air temperature is the main meteo-climatic driver of plant phenology [3], [4] and plant growth [5] also in an urban environment due to the increase of urbanization [6], [7]. Several simulation models for plant phenology and plant growth are based on the so called GDD.…”