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Climate Variability and Extremes during the Past 100 Years pp 221–233Cite as

Impacts of Climate Variability, Trends and NAO on 20th Century European Plant Phenology

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Part of the book series: Advances in Global Change Research ((AGLO,volume 33))

Abstract

We provide here a brief overview of the impacts of climate variability and recent climate change on the European plant phenology across the 20th century. Facing recent climate changes, phenology has two major functions. Firstly, it reveals measurable impacts of climate change on nature, which at the same time clearly demonstrate global climate change in people’s backyards. Secondly, long-term phenological data allow the reconstruction of temperature and its variability in the last centuries. The most prominent temperature driven changes in plant phenology are an earlier start of spring in the last three to five decades of, on average, 2.5 days/decade, mainly observed in midlatitudes and higher latitudes of the northern hemisphere. More heterogeneous changes in autumn are not as pronounced as in spring and cannot be linked to climate factors. A marked spatial and temporal variability of spring and summer onset dates and their changes can be mainly attributed to regional and local temperature. In this context, we discuss the temperature responses of the growing season and other phenological phases and their relation to the North Atlantic Oscillation. These results illustrate main feedbacks in biogeochemical cycles and land-surface interactions of the climate system.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Ecoclimatology, Technical University Munich, Germany

    A. Menzel, N. Estrella & C. Schleip

Authors
  1. A. Menzel
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  2. N. Estrella
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  3. C. Schleip
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

    Stefan Brönnimann  & Tracy Ewen  & 

  2. NCCR Climate and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research and Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland

    Jürg Luterbacher

  3. NOAA-ESRL, Boulder, CO, USA

    Henry F. Diaz

  4. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    Richard S. Stolarski

  5. ProClim, Bern, Switzerland

    Urs Neu

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Menzel, A., Estrella, N., Schleip, C. (2008). Impacts of Climate Variability, Trends and NAO on 20th Century European Plant Phenology. In: Brönnimann, S., Luterbacher, J., Ewen, T., Diaz, H., Stolarski, R., Neu, U. (eds) Climate Variability and Extremes during the Past 100 Years. Advances in Global Change Research, vol 33. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6766-2_15

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