Data from: Phenological responsiveness to climate differs among four species of Quercus in North America

1.The timing of the seasonal activity of organisms is a tractable indicator of climate change. Many studies in North America have investigated the role of temperature on the onset date of phenological transitions in temperate deciduous trees and found that the onset of leafing and flowering in numerous species has occurred earlier in recent years, apparently in response to higher temperatures in winter and spring. 2.Few studies have examined the climatic and biogeographic drivers of phenological responses in water-limited ecosystems or explored inter-specific variation in responses of phenological metrics other than the timing of onset, such as the periodicity or duration of phenological activity. 3.This study used phenological observations of four species of Quercus contributed to the USA National Phenology Network database from 2009-2014 to investigate how responses to climate (temperature and precipitation) and geographic location (latitude, longitude and elevation) varied among two western North American species (Q. agrifolia and Q. lobata) and two eastern and central North American species (Q. alba and Q. rubra). 4.Within years, in species in the western, water-limited ecosystems, the phenological phases observed here (bud break, flowers or flower buds) tend to occur intermittently throughout the growing season, and each event is of longer duration than the same phenophases of the temperate-zone species, rendering a single onset date an incomplete metric with which to track responsiveness or to compare species. By contrast, the eastern/central U.S. species were phenologically more responsive than the western species to spatial and temporal variation in winter, spring, and fall precipitation and maximum temperature. 5.Synthesis: Within and between regions these congeners exhibited a diversity of responses to seasonal temperature and precipitation. This indicates that for predictive model development it is critical to understand how each underlying driver influences species that are adapted to different climatic regimes. These results underscore the value of studying a range of phenological metrics and species from a variety of ecosystems to better predict phenological responses to short-term variation and to long-term change in climate

Quercus phenology data

These data were obtained from the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) database, accessible at www.usanpn.org/results/data. Data were collected by citizen and professional scientists through the Nature's Notebook monitoring program (www.naturesnotebook.org). This dataset was selected from the "Individual Phenometrics" data type available from the USA-NPN Phenology Observation Portal which delivers derived estimates of phenophase onset and end for individual plants. This dataset was customized by selecting all available data for four species of Quercus: Q. alba, Q. agrifolia, Q. lobata, and Q. rubra from 2009-2014 on two phenophases, "breaking leaf buds" and "flowers and flower buds". The dataset was filtered to only include onset dates that were detected within 7 days of a negative observation record. This data files includes one tab with estimated onset and end dates for phenophase activity and one tab with data field descriptions. For additional information on USA-NPN protocols and phenophase definitions visit www.usanpn.org/data

Species-specific phenological responses to winter temperature and precipitation in a water-limited ecosystem

© 2015 Mazer et al. Phenology is the study of seasonal biological events such as flowering, leaf-out, insect emergence, and animal migration. Long-term observational studies at numerous temperate zone sites have found that the timing of phenological events responds to temporal variation in climate. To assess the phenological effects of climatic variation on California's flora, The California Phenology Project (CPP) was established in 2010 to develop and to test monitoring protocols and to create tools to support long-term phenological monitoring and education in several California national parks. The CPP uses standardized protocols developed in collaboration with the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) to track the phenological status of 30 plant species across key environmental gradients (e.g., latitude, elevation, and precipitation). To date, over 860K phenological records collected by trained citizen scientists, natural resource managers, and park interns participating in the CPP have been contributed to the National Phenology Database. Observations recorded up to twice per week during the first 40 months of monitoring by the CPP were of sufficiently high resolution to detect associations between local climatic conditions and the onset of targeted phenophases. Here, we present analyses of four of the most intensively-monitored species: Baccharis pilularis (Asteraceae), Quercus lobata (Fagaceae), Sambucus nigra (Caprifoliaceae), and Eriogonum fasciculatum (Polygonaceae). We examined the effects of monthly climate parameters during a four month window (December to March), including mean minimum temperatures (Tmin), total monthly precipitation, and their interactions, on the onset dates of four phenophases per species. Stepwise regressions explained a high proportion (30-99%) of the variation in the onset date of each phenophase. Species and phenophases differed, however, with respect to the strength and the direction of the relationship between each month's conditions (Tmin and/or precipitation) and the timing of vegetative and reproductive phenophases. Given the high climatic variation represented among the monitored sites and among years (2011-2013), it was possible to detect significant associations between local, recent winter conditions and the onset dates of subsequent phenophases, although interactions between monthly conditions were also common. These patterns permit preliminary predictions regarding how these species will respond to future winter warming and intensifying drought

Differential Species Richness and Ecological Success of Epiphytes and Hemiepiphytes of Neotropical Araceae and Cyclanthaceae

Numerous plant functional traits of ecophysiology and morphology associated with an epiphytic life history have promoted relatively high rates of evolutionary diversification and ecological success in tropical families such as the Orchidaeae, Polypodiaceae, Bromeliaceae, and Cactaceae. Epiphytic life histories are relatively uncommon in the Araceae and rare in the Cyclanthaceae which lack key functional traits for epiphytism. Only two lineages of Neotropical Araceae, Anthurium and Philodendron, include examples of epiphyte life histories. The evolution of a hemiepiphytic life history represented an important development for tropical Araceae by providing functional traits that have greatly expanded opportunities for adaptive radiation and ecological success as indicated by species richness and frequency of occurrence. The key adaptive trait allowing the diversification of hemiepiphytic Araceae was the development of heteroblastic growth of leaves and stems. Although hemiepiphytic life histories are present in the Cyclanthaceae, the family has undergone only modest speciation and limited ecological success in both its epiphytes and hemiepiphytes. Extensive sampling of more than 4600 trees from primary forest on four soil groups in northeastern Costa Rica have found a modest diversity of 15 species of epiphytic Araceae but only two species of epiphytic Cyclanthaceae. In contrast, 38 species of hemiepiphytic Araceae and 5 species of hemiepiphytic Cyclanthaceae were sampled, indicating relatively limited adaptive radiation of hemiepiphytic Cyclanthaceae and lower ecological success. Using summed values of frequency of occurrence as a measure of ecological success, epiphytic Araceae were 18 to 42 times more frequent than epiphytic Cyclanthaceae in swamp, alluvial, and residual soil forests. Summed frequencies of occurrence of hemiepiphytic Araceae were 7 to 13 times higher than those of hemiepiphytic Cyclanthaceae. The four soil groups were similar in their floristic composition of epiphytic and hemiepiphytic Araceae and Cyclanthaceae, but the frequencies of occurrence of both epiphytes and hemiepiphytes were, with few exceptions, highest on swamp soil plots, with alluvial soil plots slightly less favorable

Time to branch out? Application of hierarchical survival models in plant phenology

The sensitivity of phenology to environmental drivers can vary across geography and species. As such, models developed to predict phenology are typically site- or taxon-specific. Generation of site- and taxon-specific models is limited by the intensive in-situ phenological monitoring effort required to generate sufficient data to parameterize each model. Where in-situ phenological observations exist, the data are often subject to analytical issues due to the limited duration of any individual monitoring program, spotty site- and species-level coverage, lack of standardized methodology, and infrequent or variable census intervals. Together, these characteristics constrain our ability to make phenological inferences outside of select sites and taxa where long-duration, intensive monitoring has occurred. In this study, we leveraged two national, standardized phenology datasets to develop a multi-species and multi-site state-space survival model of the onset of deciduous tree and shrub spring (leaf out) and fall (leaf-color) events across temperate ecoregions of the United States. We used data from two national-scale phenological databases, a 9-year, broadly distributed dataset from the USA National Phenology Network and a 4-year dataset from the National Ecological Observatory Network, to quantify regional and interspecific variation in sensitivity to environmental drivers for both spring and fall leaf phenophases. Spring leaf out was generally promoted by longer days, spring growing degree day accumulation, overwinter chilling, and was suppressed by frost events, whereas fall leaf color was promoted by shorter days and cold accumulation. The sensitivity to most environmental drivers tended to be more variable among species than among the regions as defined here (EPA ecoregions of North America, excluding desert and tropical areas). The results of this study lay the groundwork for incorporating the growing collection of phenological observations into a generalized framework for predicting the transition states for any species, in any location.United States Geological Survey [G14AC00405, G17AC00405, G18AC00135]24 month embargo; available online 20 September 2019.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

How well do the spring indices predict phenological activity across plant species?

The spring indices, models that represent the onset of spring season biological activity, were developed using a long-term observational record from the mid-to-late twentieth century of three species of lilacs and honeysuckles contributed by volunteer observers across the nation. The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) produces and freely delivers maps of spring index onset dates at fine spatial scale for the USA. These maps are used widely in natural resource planning and management applications. The extent to which the models represent activity in a broad suite of plant species is not well documented. In this study, we used a rich record of observational plant phenology data (37,819 onset records) collected in recent years (1981-2017) to evaluate how well gridded maps of the spring index models predict leaf and flowering onset dates in (a) 19 species of ecologically important, broadly distributed deciduous trees and shrubs, and (b) the lilac and honeysuckle species used to construct the models. The extent to which the spring indices predicted vegetative and reproductive phenology varied by species and with latitude, with stronger relationships revealed for shrubs than trees and with the Bloom Index compared to the Leaf Index, and reduced concordance between the indices at higher latitudes. These results allow us to use the indices as indicators of when to expect activity across widely distributed species and can serve as a yardstick to assess how future changes in the timing of spring will impact a broad array of trees and shrubs across the USA.12 month embargo; published online: 27 February 2020This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

The California Phenology Project: Tracking Plant Responses to Climate Change

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Creating the Urban Farmer's Almanac with Citizen Science Data

Agriculture has long been a part of the urban landscape, from gardens to small scale farms. In recent decades, interest in producing food in cities has grown dramatically, with an estimated 30% of the global urban population engaged in some form of food production. Identifying and managing the insect biodiversity found on city farms is a complex task often requiring years of study and specialization, especially in urban landscapes which have a complicated tapestry of fragmentation, diversity, pollution, and introduced species. Supporting urban growers with relevant data informs insect management decision-making for both growers and their neighbors, yet this information can be difficult to come by. In this study, we introduced several web-based citizen science programs that can connect growers with useful data products and people to help with the who, what, where, and when of urban insects. Combining the power of citizen science volunteers with the efforts of urban farmers can result in a clearer picture of the diversity and ecosystem services in play, limited insecticide use, and enhanced non-chemical alternatives. Connecting urban farming practices with citizen science programs also demonstrates the ecosystem value of urban agriculture and engages more citizens with the topics of food production, security, and justice in their communities.University of Arizona Libraries; University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; U.S. Geological SurveyUnited States Geological Survey [G18AC00135]Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

The geographic distribution of the clusters in context condition of common lilac.

<p>The geographic distribution of the clusters in context condition of common lilac.</p