Divergent Responses of Community Reproductive and Vegetative Phenology to Warming and Cooling: Asymmetry Versus Symmetry

Abstract

Few studies have focused on the response of plant community phenology to temperature change using manipulative experiments. A lack of understanding of whether responses of community reproductive and vegetative phenological sequences to warming and cooling are asymmetrical or symmetrical limits our capacity to predict responses under warming and cooling. A reciprocal transplant experiment was conducted for 3 years to evaluate response patterns of the temperature sensitivities of community phenological sequences to warming (transferred downward) and cooling (transferred upward) along four elevations on the Tibetan Plateau. We found that the temperature sensitivities of flowering stages had asymmetric responses to warming and cooling, whereas symmetric responses to warming and cooling were observed for the vegetative phenological sequences. Our findings showed that coverage changes of flowering functional groups (FFGs; i.e., early-spring FFG, mid-summer FFG, and late-autumn FFG) and their compensation effects combined with required accumulated soil temperatureto codetermined the asymmetric and symmetric responses of community phenological sequences to warming and cooling. These results suggest that coverage change in FFGs on warming and cooling processes can be a primary driver of community phenological variation and may lead to inaccurate phenlogical estimation at large scale, such as based on remote sensing.

Global variation in diurnal asymmetry in temperature, cloud cover, specific humidity and precipitation and its association with leaf area index

“…The Plateau has also experienced diel asymmetry in the other climate variables, with increased cloud cover and some evidence of increased specific humidity at night, whilst precipitation is greater during the daytime. The Plateau has been the focus of research on the ecological impacts of warming asymmetry, primarily related to plant growth, and these impacts have been found to be diverse, from increased vegetation growth (Xia et al., 2018), shifting phenology (Liu, Yin, Shao, & Qin, 2006; Meng et al., 2019; Suonan, Classen, Zhang, & He, 2017), to reduced crop yields (Peng et al, 2004), soil respiration (Zhong, Zhang, & Zhang, 2019) and nectar yields (Mu et al., 2015). However, ecological studies have yet to consider the impacts of diel asymmetry in other aspects of the changing climate.…”

Lags in phenological acclimation of mountain grasslands after recent warming

“…Earlier works found that climate warming led to earlier phenology (experimental warming: Meng et al., 2018, 2019; review on existing studies: Parmesan & Hanley, 2015; review on alpine ecosystem: Winkler et al., 2019) and faster plant growth (Wang et al., 2020). In apparent contradiction, our climate warming experiment promoted later phenology (i.e.…”

“…Plant phenology and its response to warming climate is a globally long‐studied phenomenon with different experimental methods and at different organism levels (Piao et al., 2019; Winkler et al., 2019; Wolkovich et al., 2012). For mountain grasslands, experimental warming showed an advancement in greening, flowering and fruiting but a delayed browning at community level (Meng et al., 2019). However, even so community‐level phenological responses often resemble species‐specific responses to warming (Diez et al., 2012), species with different characteristics still show idiosyncratic responses (Arft et al., 1999; Dunne et al., 2003; Li et al., 2016; Smith et al., 2012; Wang, Meng, et al., 2014).…”

“…Hitherto, warming studies have mainly focussed on a single type of indicator (Aldridge et al., 2011; Li et al., 2016; Meng et al., 2019; Wang, Meng, et al., 2014; Wang, Ottlé, et al., 2014) (but see counter examples: Wang et al., 2020; Wang, Wang, et al., 2014) and quantified phenological changes as a response to warming (i.e. the warming effect; Piao et al., 2019; Shen et al., 2015; Wolkovich et al., 2012) but rarely measured acclimation lags (Ryo et al., 2019).…”

Populus euphratica Phenology and Its Response to Climate Change in the Upper Tarim River Basin, NW China

“…Vegetation phenology is the research of events in the plant life cycle, and how these events adapt to climate changes [1,2], which makes it the most intuitive and sensitive biological indicator of climate change. Climate change, such as modified precipitation, increasing temperature, and increasing frequency of extreme weather events, will change the vegetation phenology [3], which will have extensive effects on plant community structure, plant distribution, energy cycles, vegetation ecosystems, and primary production of vegetation [4][5][6][7][8]. Altered phenological timing, furthermore, may have negative effects on species interactions in the food chain, such as migration, survival, reproduction, and occupying feeding habits [9,10].…”