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Buonaiuto DM, Davies TJ, Collins SC, Wolkovich EM. Ecological drivers of flower-leaf sequences: aridity and proxies for pollinator attraction select for flowering-first in the American plums. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2024. [PMID: 38561636 DOI: 10.1111/nph.19685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2023] [Accepted: 03/01/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
Across temperate forests, many tree species produce flowers before their leaves emerge. This flower-leaf phenological sequence, known as hysteranthy, is generally described as an adaptation for wind pollination. However, this explanation does not address why hysteranthy is also common in biotically pollinated taxa. We quantified flower-leaf sequence variation in the American plums (Prunus, subg. Prunus sect. Prunocerasus), a clade of insect-pollinated trees, using herbaria specimens and Bayesian hierarchical modeling. We tested two common, but rarely interrogated hypotheses - that hysteranthy confers aridity tolerance and/or pollinator visibility - by modeling the associations between hysteranthy and related traits. To understand how these phenology-trait associations were sensitive to taxonomic scale and flower-leaf sequence classification, we then extended these analyses to all Prunus species in North America. Our findings across two taxonomic levels support the hypotheses that hysteranthy may help temporally partition hydraulic demand to reduce water stress and increase pollinator visibility - thereby reducing selective pressure on inflorescence size. Our results provide foundational insights into the evolution of flower-leaf sequences in the genus Prunus, with implications for understanding these patterns in biotically pollinated plants in general. Our approach suggests a path to advance these hypotheses to other clades, but teasing out drivers fully will require new experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- D M Buonaiuto
- Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA
- Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Boston, MA, 02131, USA
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
| | - T J Davies
- Forest & Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
- Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - S C Collins
- Forest & Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - E M Wolkovich
- Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Boston, MA, 02131, USA
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
- Forest & Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
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Zeng ZA, Wolkovich EM. Weak evidence of provenance effects in spring phenology across Europe and North America. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2024. [PMID: 38494441 DOI: 10.1111/nph.19674] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
Forecasting the biological impacts of climate change requires understanding how species respond to warmer temperatures through interannual flexible variation vs through adaptation to local conditions. Yet, we often lack this information entirely or find conflicting evidence across studies, which is the case for spring phenology. We synthesized common garden studies across Europe and North America that reported spring event dates for a mix of angiosperm and gymnosperm tree species in the northern hemisphere, capturing data from 384 North American and 101 European provenances (i.e. populations) with observations from 1962 to 2019, alongside autumn event data when provided. Across continents, we found no evidence of provenance effects in spring phenology, but strong clines with latitude and mean annual temperature in autumn. These effects, however, appeared to diverge by continent and species type (gymnosperm vs angiosperm), with particularly pronounced clines in North America in autumn events. Our results suggest flexible, likely plastic responses, in spring phenology with warming, and potential limits - at least in the short term - due to provenance effects for autumn phenology. They also highlight that, after over 250 yr of common garden studies on tree phenology, we still lack a holistic predictive model of clines across species and phenological events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ziyun Alina Zeng
- Forest Resources Management, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, 2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Elizabeth M Wolkovich
- Forest & Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, 2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
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3
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Guo L, Liu X, Alatalo JM, Wang C, Xu J, Yu H, Chen J, Yu Q, Peng C, Dai J, Luedeling E. Climatic drivers and ecological implications of variation in the time interval between leaf-out and flowering. Curr Biol 2023; 33:3338-3349.e3. [PMID: 37490919 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.06.064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Revised: 06/01/2023] [Accepted: 06/23/2023] [Indexed: 07/27/2023]
Abstract
Leaf-out and flowering in any given species have evolved to occur in a predetermined sequence, with the inter-stage time interval optimized to maximize plant fitness. Although warming-induced advances of both leaf-out and flowering are well documented, it remains unclear whether shifts in these phenological phases differ in magnitudes and whether changes have occurred in the length of the inter-stage intervals. Here, we present an extensive synthesis of warming effects on flower-leaf time intervals, using long-term (1963-2014) and in situ data consisting of 11,858 leaf-out and flowering records for 183 species across China. We found that the timing of both spring phenological events was generally advanced, indicating a dominant impact of forcing conditions compared with chilling. Stable time intervals between leaf-out and flowering prevailed for most of the time series despite increasing temperatures; however, some of the investigated cases featured significant changes in the time intervals. The latter could be explained by differences in the temperature sensitivity (ST) between leaf and flower phenology. Greater ST for flowering than for leaf-out caused flowering times to advance faster than leaf emergence. This shortened the inter-stage intervals in leaf-first species and lengthened them in flower-first species. Variation in the time intervals between leaf-out and flowering events may have far-reaching ecological and evolutionary consequences, with implications for species fitness, intra/inter-species interactions, and ecosystem structure, function, and stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liang Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China; Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
| | - Xiaowei Liu
- College of Grassland Agriculture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China
| | - Juha M Alatalo
- Environmental Science Center, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar
| | - Chuanyao Wang
- College of Forestry (Academy of Forestry), Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China
| | - Jianchu Xu
- Center for Mountain Ecosystem Studies, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650201, China; World Agroforestry Center, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Haiying Yu
- College of A&F Engineering and Planning, Tongren University, Tongren, Guizhou 554300, China
| | - Ji Chen
- Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Tjele, Jutland 8830, Denmark
| | - Qiang Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China; Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
| | - Changhui Peng
- School of Geographic Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan 410081, China; Department of Biology Science, Institute of Environment Sciences, University of Quebec at Montreal, Montreal, QC H3C 3P8, Canada.
| | - Junhu Dai
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; China-Pakistan Joint Research Center on Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences-Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
| | - Eike Luedeling
- INRES-Horticultural Sciences, University of Bonn, Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen 53121, Germany
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Buonaiuto DM. Climate change: Shifts in time between flowering and leaf-out are complex and consequential. Curr Biol 2023; 33:R860-R863. [PMID: 37607481 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.06.085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/24/2023]
Abstract
A new study investigated how time intervals between flowering and leaf-out in woody plants are impacted by climate change. Climate change has shifted the timing of both stages, but its impact on the interval between them is complex and variable.
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Affiliation(s)
- D M Buonaiuto
- Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA.
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Picornell A, Smith M, Rojo J. Climate change related phenological decoupling in species belonging to the Betulaceae family. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOMETEOROLOGY 2023; 67:195-209. [PMID: 36308550 DOI: 10.1007/s00484-022-02398-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2022] [Revised: 10/20/2022] [Accepted: 10/23/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Betulaceae species are anemophilous, and allergens from their pollen are a major cause of respiratory allergies in temperate areas where they are widely distributed. It is expected that, due to the strong influence of temperature on Betulaceae phenology, global warming will impact both the distribution and phenology of these species during the coming decades. This study examines potential decoupling of flowering and leafing phenophases in Betulaceae species (i.e. Alnus glutinosa, Betula pendula and Corylus avellana) over long-term (1951-2015) and as shorter (15-year) periods. Phenological phases for flowering and leaf unfolding of Betulaceae species from the Pan-European Phenology (PEP725) database were examined along with maximum and minimum daily temperature data for the periods September-October-November (SON), December-January-February (DJF) and March-April-May (MAM). Significant increases in temperature since 1951 have been recorded in the relevant chilling and forcing periods. Both flowering and leaf unfolding phenophases are advancing, but flowering is advancing faster than leaf unfolding. This is increasing the time between phenophases, although analysis of 15-year periods shows that the pattern of change was not constant. The results presented here represent the most comprehensive analysis of flowering and leaf unfolding phenophases of Betulaceae species using the PEP725 database to date. It is expected that these changes to Betulaceae phenology will continue and that global warming-related phenological decoupling will increase plant stress in Betulaceae populations in central Europe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Picornell
- Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, University of Malaga, Campus de Teatinos S/N. E-29071, Malaga, Spain.
| | - Matt Smith
- School of Science and the Environment, University of Worcester, Worcester, UK
| | - Jesús Rojo
- Department of Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy and Botany, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
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Wang S, Wu Z, Gong Y, Wang S, Zhang W, Zhang S, De Boeck HJ, Fu YH. Climate warming shifts the time interval between flowering and leaf unfolding depending on the warming period. SCIENCE CHINA. LIFE SCIENCES 2022; 65:2316-2324. [PMID: 35474153 DOI: 10.1007/s11427-022-2094-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2022] [Accepted: 03/17/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
The timing of flowering (FL) and leaf unfolding (LU) determine plants' reproduction and vegetative growth. Global warming has substantially advanced FL and LU of temperate and boreal plants, but their responses to warming differ, which may influence the time interval between FL and LU (∆LU-FL), thereby impacting plant fitness and intraspecific physiological processes. Based on twigs collected from two flowering-first tree species, Populus tomentosa and Amygdalus triloba, we conducted a manipulative experiment to investigate the effects of winter chilling, spring warming and photoperiod on the ∆LU-FL. We found that photoperiod did not affect the ∆LU-FL of Amygdalus triloba, but shortened ∆LU-FL by 5.1 d of Populus tomentosa. Interestingly, spring warming and winter chilling oppositely affected the ∆LU-FL of both species. Specifically, low chilling accumulation extended the ∆LU-FL by 3.8 and 9.4 d for Populus tomentosa and Amygdalus triloba, but spring warming shortened the ∆LU-FL by 4.1 and 0.2 d °C-1. Our results indicate that climate warming will decrease or increase the ∆LU-FL depending on the warming periods, i.e., spring or winter. The shifted time interval between flowering and leaf unfolding may have ecological effects including affecting pollen transfer efficiency and alter the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuxin Wang
- College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100085, China
| | - Zhaofei Wu
- College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100085, China
| | - Yufeng Gong
- College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100085, China
| | | | | | | | - Hans J De Boeck
- Plants and Ecosystems, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Antwerpen, 2000, Belgium
| | - Yongshuo H Fu
- College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100085, China.
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McMann N, Peichel A, Savage JA. Early spring flowers rely on xylem hydration but are not limited by stem xylem conductivity. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2022; 233:838-850. [PMID: 34618926 DOI: 10.1111/nph.17782] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Many woody plants produce large floral displays early in the spring when xylem transport can be variable and often reduced. To determine whether stem hydraulics impact floral water use, we quantified floral transpiration and tested whether it was correlated with stem xylem conductivity in five temperate woody species that flower before producing leaves. We measured inflorescence gas exchange, examined the relationship between diffusive conductance and inflorescence morphology, and estimated the amount of water supplied to an inflorescence by the phloem. We also tested for correlation between transpiration and native stem xylem conductivity for branches with leaves and branches with flowers. The flowers of our study species obtain most of their water from the xylem. Diffusive conductance was higher in small inflorescences, but water content and daily transpiration rates were greater for larger inflorescences. We found no correlation between floral transpiration per branch and stem xylem conductivity within species. The data suggest that inflorescence water loss during anthesis is not limited by the xylem in our study species. We highlight the impact of floral morphology on hydraulic traits and encourage exploration into temporal shifts in floral hydration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie McMann
- Department of Biology, University of Minnesota Duluth, 207 Swenson Science Building, 1035 Kirby Drive, Duluth, MN, 55812, USA
| | - Alexander Peichel
- Department of Biology, University of Minnesota Duluth, 207 Swenson Science Building, 1035 Kirby Drive, Duluth, MN, 55812, USA
| | - Jessica A Savage
- Department of Biology, University of Minnesota Duluth, 207 Swenson Science Building, 1035 Kirby Drive, Duluth, MN, 55812, USA
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Sandor ME, Aslan CE, Pejchar L, Bronstein JL. A Mechanistic Framework for Understanding the Effects of Climate Change on the Link Between Flowering and Fruiting Phenology. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.752110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Phenological shifts are a widely studied consequence of climate change. Little is known, however, about certain critical phenological events, nor about mechanistic links between shifts in different life-history stages of the same organism. Among angiosperms, flowering times have been observed to advance with climate change, but, whether fruiting times shift as a direct consequence of shifting flowering times, or respond differently or not at all to climate change, is poorly understood. Yet, shifts in fruiting could alter species interactions, including by disrupting seed dispersal mutualisms. In the absence of long-term data on fruiting phenology, but given extensive data on flowering, we argue that an understanding of whether flowering and fruiting are tightly linked or respond independently to environmental change can significantly advance our understanding of how fruiting phenologies will respond to warming climates. Through a case study of biotically and abiotically dispersed plants, we present evidence for a potential functional link between the timing of flowering and fruiting. We then propose general mechanisms for how flowering and fruiting life history stages could be functionally linked or independently driven by external factors, and we use our case study species and phenological responses to distinguish among proposed mechanisms in a real-world framework. Finally, we identify research directions that could elucidate which of these mechanisms drive the timing between subsequent life stages. Understanding how fruiting phenology is altered by climate change is essential for all plant species but is particularly critical to sustaining the large numbers of plant species that rely on animal-mediated dispersal, as well as the animals that rely on fruit for sustenance.
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