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Ecosystems

, Volume 21, Issue 7, pp 1306–1320 | Cite as

Phenological Sensitivity of Early and Late Flowering Species Under Seasonal Warming and Altered Precipitation in a Seminatural Temperate Grassland Ecosystem

  • Mohammed A. S. Arfin KhanEmail author
  • Carl Beierkuhnlein
  • Juergen Kreyling
  • Sabrina Backhaus
  • Sebastian Varga
  • Anke Jentsch
Article
First Online:

Abstract

Shifts in flowering phenology of plants are indicators of climate change. The great majority of existing phenological studies refer solely to gradual warming. However, knowledge on how flowering phenology responds to changes in seasonal variation of warming and precipitation regimes is missing. We report the onset of 22 early (flowering before/within May) and 23 late flowering (flowering after May) species in response to manipulated seasonal warming (equal to + 1.2°C; last 100-year summer/winter warming), additional winter rainfall, and modified precipitation variability (including a 1000-year extreme drought event followed by heavy rainfall) over the growing season in two consecutive years for a species-rich temperate grassland ecosystem. The average onset of flowering (over 2 years) was significantly advanced 3.1 days by winter warming and 1.5 days by summer warming compared to control. Early flowering species responded to seasonal warming in both years, while late-flowering species responded in only 1 year to summer warming. The average onset of early flowering species was significantly advanced, 4.9 days by winter warming and 2.3 days by summer warming. Species-specific analysis showed that even within the early flowering community there were divergences. A positive correlation between plant height and shift in flowering onset was detected under winter warming (R2 = 0.20, p = 0.005). The average onsets of early and late flowering community were affected by neither winter rain nor growing season precipitation variability. Seasonal differences in warming, and particularly winter warming, might alter community dynamics among early and late flowering species which can cause shifts in the seasonal performances of temperate ecosystems.

Keywords

climatic extreme drought ecosystem productivity mesic plant–climate interactions phenology plant trait rain seasonal climate change temperature 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

The research was funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG JE 282/6-1) and by the “Bavarian Climate Programme 2020” of the Bavarian State Ministry of Sciences, Research and the Arts within the FORKAST research cooperation “Impact of Climate on Ecosystems and Climatic Adaptation Strategies.” Arfin Khan was supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The authors also acknowledge the financial support by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the framework of the BonaRes project SUSALPS (project number: 031B0027C). A special thanks to Peter Wilfahrt for native English editing. We also thank Roman Hein and all actors of the EVENT experiments at the University of Bayreuth for setting up and maintaining the experimental facilities and for helping during field data collection.

Supplementary material

10021_2017_220_MOESM1_ESM.docx (1.3 mb)
Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 1320 kb)

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© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Disturbance Ecology, BayCEERUniversity of BayreuthBayreuthGermany
  2. 2.Department of Forestry and Environmental ScienceShahjalal University of Science and TechnologySylhetBangladesh
  3. 3.Biogeography, BayCEERUniversity of BayreuthBayreuthGermany
  4. 4.Experimental Plant Ecology, Institute of Botany and Landscape EcologyGreifswald UniversityGreifswaldGermany

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