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Characterizing spring phenology in a temperate deciduous urban woodland fragment: trees and shrubs

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Abstract

Phenological research in temperate-deciduous forests typically focuses on upper canopy trees, due to their overwhelming influence on ecosystem productivity and function. However, considering that shrubs leaf out earlier and remain green longer than trees, they play a pivotal role in ecosystem productivity, particularly at growing season extremes. Furthermore, an extended growing season of non-native shrubs provides a competitive advantage over natives. Here, we report spring phenology, budburst, leaf-out, and full-leaf unfolded (2017–2021) of a range of co-occurring species of tree (ash, American basswood, red oak, white oak, and boxelder) and shrub (native species: chokecherry, pagoda dogwood, nannyberry, American wild currant and Eastern wahoo, and non-native species: buckthorn, honeysuckle, European privet, and European highbush cranberry) in an urban woodland fragment in Wisconsin, USA, to determine how phenology differed between plant groups. Our findings show that all three spring phenophases of shrubs were 3 weeks earlier (p < 0.05) than trees. However, differences between shrubs groups were only significant for the later phenophase; full-leaf unfolded, which was 6 days earlier (p < 0.05) for native shrubs. The duration of the spring phenological season was 2 weeks longer (p < 0.05) for shrubs than trees. These preliminary findings demonstrate that native shrubs, at this site, start full-leaf development earlier than non-native species suggesting that species composition must be considered when generalizing whether phenologies differ between vegetation groups. A longer time series would be necessary to determine future implications on ecosystem phenology and productivity and how this might impact forests in the future, in terms of species composition, carbon sequestration, and overall ecosystem dynamics.

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Data Availability

All phenological data are in the process of being assessed for inclusion in the data repository PANGAEA (www.pangaea.de).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Research Growth Initiative grant (101x368) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. We are grateful to Gretchen Meyer (UWM Field Station director) for granting us access to Downer Woods and helping with species identification. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.

Funding

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,101×368, Alison Donnelly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, 53201, USA

    Alison Donnelly, Rong Yu, Chloe Rehberg & Mark D. Schwartz

  2. State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, China

    Rong Yu

  3. Key Laboratory of Carbon Cycling in Forest Ecosystems and Carbon Sequestration of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, China

    Rong Yu

Authors
  1. Alison Donnelly
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  2. Rong Yu
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  3. Chloe Rehberg
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  4. Mark D. Schwartz
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Contributions

Alison Donnelly conceived and designed the research project, established the monitoring campaign, analyzed the data, and wrote the MS. Rong Yu helped with data analysis. Chloe Rehberg collected some of the data. Mark D. Schwartz provided some data.

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Correspondence to Alison Donnelly.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Donnelly, A., Yu, R., Rehberg, C. et al. Characterizing spring phenology in a temperate deciduous urban woodland fragment: trees and shrubs. Int J Biometeorol 68, 871–882 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02632-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02632-6

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