Authors
Janet Prevéy, Mark Vellend, Nadja Rüger, Robert D Hollister, Anne D Bjorkman, Isla H Myers‐Smith, Sarah C Elmendorf, Karin Clark, Elisabeth J Cooper, BO Elberling, Anna M Fosaa, Gregory HR Henry, Toke T Høye, Ingibjörg S Jónsdóttir, Kari Klanderud, Esther Lévesque, Marguerite Mauritz, Ulf Molau, Susan M Natali, Steven F Oberbauer, Zoe A Panchen, Eric Post, Sabine B Rumpf, Niels M Schmidt, Edward AG Schuur, Phillip R Semenchuk, Tiffany Troxler, Jeffrey M Welker, Christian Rixen
Publication date
2017/7
Journal
Global change biology
Volume
23
Issue
7
Pages
2660-2671
Description
Warmer temperatures are accelerating the phenology of organisms around the world. Temperature sensitivity of phenology might be greater in colder, higher latitude sites than in warmer regions, in part because small changes in temperature constitute greater relative changes in thermal balance at colder sites. To test this hypothesis, we examined up to 20 years of phenology data for 47 tundra plant species at 18 high‐latitude sites along a climatic gradient. Across all species, the timing of leaf emergence and flowering was more sensitive to a given increase in summer temperature at colder than warmer high‐latitude locations. A similar pattern was seen over time for the flowering phenology of a widespread species, Cassiope tetragona. These are among the first results highlighting differential phenological responses of plants across a climatic gradient and suggest the possibility of convergence in flowering times …
Total citations
2016201720182019202020212022202320241617273046443017