Climatic Variability Leads to Later Seasonal Flowering of Floridian Plants

Understanding species responses to global change will help predict shifts in species distributions as well as aid in conservation. Changes in the timing of seasonal activities of organisms over time may be the most responsive and easily observable indicator of environmental changes associated with global climate change. It is unknown how global climate change will affect species distributions and developmental events in subtropical ecosystems or if climate change will differentially favor nonnative species. Contrary to previously observed trends for earlier flowering onset of plant species with increasing spring temperatures from mid and higher latitudes, we document a trend for delayed seasonal flowering among plants in Florida. Additionally, there were few differences in reproductive responses by native and nonnative species to climatic changes. We argue that plants in Florida have different reproductive cues than those from more northern climates. With global change, minimum temperatures have become more variable within the temperate-subtropical zone that occurs across the peninsula and this variation is strongly associated with delayed flowering among Florida plants. Our data suggest that climate change varies by region and season and is not a simple case of species responding to consistently increasing temperatures across the region. Research on climate change impacts need to be extended outside of the heavily studied higher latitudes to include subtropical and tropical systems in order to properly understand the complexity of regional and seasonal differences of climate change on species responses

Herbivore Preference for Native vs. Exotic Plants: Generalist Herbivores from Multiple Continents Prefer Exotic Plants That Are Evolutionarily Naïve

Enemy release and biotic resistance are competing, but not mutually exclusive, hypotheses addressing the success or failure of non-native plants entering a new region. Enemy release predicts that exotic plants become invasive by escaping their co-adapted herbivores and by being unrecognized or unpalatable to native herbivores that have not been selected to consume them. In contrast, biotic resistance predicts that native generalist herbivores will suppress exotic plants that will not have been selected to deter these herbivores. We tested these hypotheses using five generalist herbivores from North or South America and nine confamilial pairs of native and exotic aquatic plants. Four of five herbivores showed 2.4–17.3 fold preferences for exotic over native plants. Three species of South American apple snails (Pomacea sp.) preferred North American over South American macrophytes, while a North American crayfish Procambarus spiculifer preferred South American, Asian, and Australian macrophytes over North American relatives. Apple snails have their center of diversity in South America, but a single species (Pomacea paludosa) occurs in North America. This species, with a South American lineage but a North American distribution, did not differentiate between South American and North American plants. Its preferences correlated with preferences of its South American relatives rather than with preferences of the North American crayfish, consistent with evolutionary inertia due to its South American lineage. Tests of plant traits indicated that the crayfish responded primarily to plant structure, the apple snails primarily to plant chemistry, and that plant protein concentration played no detectable role. Generalist herbivores preferred non-native plants, suggesting that intact guilds of native, generalist herbivores may provide biotic resistance to plant invasions. Past invasions may have been facilitated by removal of native herbivores, introduction of non-native herbivores (which commonly prefer native plants), or both

Boletín de Segovia: Número 107 - 1873 agosto 20

Copia digital. Madrid : Ministerio de Cultura. Subdirección General de Coordinación Bibliotecaria, 200

Utilizing a Historical Database to Refine Ground Cover Vegetation as Indicators of Wetland Hydrology

Indicator species provide an easy and quick method of evaluating ecosystems. The species comprising the most useful indicators of wetlands should be distributed across a range of water depths and inundation durations, while each species is representative of a specific condition. Hydrophytic vegetation is commonly used to determine the existence and type of wetland; however, such indicator systems often depend on assigning species qualitatively to discrete categories based on assumptions about their distribution along a gradient of conditions. The current study proposes a wetland indicator system based on the quantitative responses of individual vegetation species to a gradient of water depths and periods of inundation. A long-term database was utilized to determine species responses to hydrological alterations in a series of wetlands. The hydrophytic plant species investigated (n = 29) displayed relatively narrow ranges of mean hydrologic values and were distributed linearly along multiple hydrologic gradients (hydroperiod, average water depth, and maximum water depth) ranging from Amphicarpum muhlenbergianum which was observed at the shallowest water depths and shortest hydroperiod to Pontederia cordata and Ludwigia repens which were characteristic of wetlands with the deepest water and longest hydroperiod. The species distribution and means along the hydrologic gradients tested indicates they are prime candidates for inclusion in a quantitative or continuum indicator system. The historical database utilized for this study provided valuable information for numerous species common to the Tampa Bay region for which little or no ecological information was previously available. The methodology utilized in this paper provides a cost and time effective method for obtaining the vast amounts of information required to refine plant indicator systems using a large number of species