Climate change is altering the timing of life history events in a wide array of species, many of which are involved in mutualistic interactions. Because many mutualisms can form only if partner species are able to locate each other in time, differential phenological shifts are likely to influence their strength, duration and outcome. At the extreme, climate change-driven shifts in phenology may...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Plathymenia reticulata (Leguminosae) is a Brazilian tree that occurs in two biomes: Cerrado, a woody savanna vegetation, and the Atlantic Forest, a tropical forest. In this study, phenological patterns and their variability within and among populations located in these biomes and in transitional zones between them were assessed. METHODS During a 15-month period, individual...

This study attempted to establish a broad regional phenological pattern for Northeast Asia using time-series data of the satellite measured index of terrestrial chlorophyll content (MERIS Terrestrial Chlorophyll Index) from 2003 to 2007. A suite of phenological variables were extracted from 4 integral seasons of time-series Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) Terrestrial Chlorophyll ...

Monitoring phenology at a regional, national or at a global scale is recognized by the scientific community as very important for many practical applications and notably for climate change studies. Phenological observations are classically realised for specific plant species in botanical garden or in small study areas or fields all over the world and sometimes date back to the 19 century. Altho...

Ignasi Bartomeus,* Mia G. Park, Jason Gibbs, Bryan N. Danforth, Alan N. Lakso and Rachael Winfree Abstract Climate change has the potential to alter the phenological synchrony between interacting mutualists, such as plants and their pollinators. However, high levels of biodiversity might buffer the negative effects of species-specific phenological shifts and maintain synchrony at the community ...

Phenological data have recently emerged as particularly effective tools for studying the impact of climate change on plants, but long phenological records are rare. The lack of phenological observations can nevertheless be filled by herbarium specimens as long as some correction procedures are applied to take into account the different climatic conditions associated with sampling locations. In ...

Phenological traits often show variation within and among natural populations of annual plants. Nevertheless, the adaptive value of post-anthesis traits is seldom tested. In this study, we estimated the adaptive values of pre- and post-anthesis traits in two stressful environments (water stress and interspecific competition), using the selfing annual species Arabidopsis thaliana. By estimating ...

Shifts in species' phenology in response to climate change have wide-ranging consequences for ecological systems. However, significant variability in species' responses, together with limited data, frustrates efforts to forecast the consequences of ongoing phenological changes. Herein, we use a case study of three North American plant communities to explore the implications of variability acros...

Although climate warming has been widely demonstrated to induce shifts in the timing of many biological events, the phenological consequences of other prominent global change drivers remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated the effects of biological invasions on the seasonality of leaf litter decomposition, a crucial freshwater ecosystem function. Decomposition rates were quantified in 18 ...

Knowledge of how species interactions are influenced by climate warming is paramount to understand current biodiversity changes. We review phenological changes of Swedish butterflies during the latest decades and explore potential climate effects on butterfly-host plant interactions using the Orange tip butterfly Anthocharis cardamines and its host plants as a model system. This butterfly has a...