The study of phylogenetic conservatism in alpine plant phenology is critical for predicting climate change impacts; currently we have a poor understanding of how phylogeny and climate factors interactively influence plant phenology. Therefore, we explored the influence of phylogeny and climate factors on flowering phenology in alpine meadows. For two different types of alpine plant communities, we recorded phenological data, including flowering peak, first flower budding, first flowering, first fruiting and the flowering end for 62 species over the course of 5 years (2008-2012). From sequences in two plastid regions, we constructed phylogenetic trees. We used Blomberg's K and Pagel's lambda to assess the phylogenetic signal in phenological traits and species' phenological responses to climate factors. We found a significant phylogenetic signal in the date of all reproductive phenological events and in species' phenological responses to weekly day length and temperature. The number of species in flower was strongly associated with the weekly day lengths and followed by the weekly temperature prior to phenological activity. Based on phylogenetic eigenvector regression (PVR) analysis, we found a highly shared influence of phylogeny and climate factors on alpine species flowering phenology. Our results suggest the phylogenetic conservatism in both flowering and fruiting phenology may depend on the similarity of responses to external environmental cues among close relatives.
Central to the success of restoration is how applied activities influence community assembly mechanisms. Phylogenetic and trait‐based approaches to community ecology are increasingly being used to test for non‐random community assembly and are now being applied to assessments of habitat restoration. A critical question for the restoration of tropical forests is how plantings influence the recruitment of new species, and specifically the phylogenetic and functional diversity of restored habitats. We examined 8 years (2006–2014) of tropical‐forest recruitment in two restoration planting compositions (12 animal‐dispersed and 12 wind‐dispersed tree species), with a control (no planting) in 24 plots in Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Specifically, we assessed the influence of plantings on newly arriving individuals’ phylogenetic, functional, taxonomic diversity, abundance and the change of these measures during early succession. The recruiting individuals’ phylogenetic, functional, taxonomic diversity and abundance increased through succession. Both animal‐dispersed planting and wind‐dispersed planting appeared to accelerate forest succession more than controls (natural succession), and diversity in the animal‐dispersed plantings was marginally higher after 8 years. We did not find any difference in recruiting individuals’ phylogenetic and functional dispersion (measured as standardized effect sizes) in any given year, or when measured as turnover between successive pairs of years, measuring planting composition and control plots. Recruiting individuals were phylogenetically clustered during early forest restoration regardless of treatment. At the same time, the recruits transitioned from appearing randomly constructed to clustering according to functional traits, which suggests an increase in recruits’ functional similarity during early succession. Synthesis and applications. Both the animal and wind‐dispersed plantings accelerated the increase of recruiting individuals’ phylogenetic, functional, taxonomic diversity and abundance during early succession. However, planting treatment did not appear to alter community assembly mechanisms of recruiting individuals. Our findings support restoration planting by showing that planting trees with animal dispersal syndrome could accelerate forest restoration more than unassisted forest regeneration. Furthermore, communities appeared to be phylogenetically and functionally clustered during early succession regardless of initial planted composition. Thus, while overall diversity increased with planting, if a restoration goal is to maximize phylogenetic or functional dispersion, the planting composition tested did not provide means to achieve this goal, at least during early succession.
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