Evidences of olive pollination date variations in relation to spring temperature trends

Abstract

Airborne pollen concentration patterns reflect flowering phenology of a given species, and it may be a sensitive regional indicator in climate change studies. This paper presents the relationship between a strategic biological event, such as olive flowering, and the air temperature trend, registered over a large scale in the Umbria region. The aim of the study was to determine relationships between phenological behaviour (flowering) of olive trees and the air temperature trend in the Umbria region. The phenological data on flowering phase were registered indirectly through an aerobiological monitoring technique. The obtained results showed a strong relationship between phenology and thermal trend. This characteristic was confirmed from results of correlations between temperature (mean temperature from 1st March) and flowering dates, especially that of full flowering (r = -0.9297). Moreover, the results showed an advance trend of 6, 8 and 10 days, respectively of start, full and end of flowering dates. The advance of the recorded flowering time in this period is to ascribe mainly to the increase of mean temperature and above all to that registered in months of May and June.

Variability of the Course of Tomato Growth and Development in Poland as an Effect of Climate Change

“…In southern Poland, the temperature trend in May amounted to as much as 0.6 o C/10 years. The obtained results are similar to those described in different parts of Europe (Bauer et al, 2009;Bonofiglio et al, 2009;Chmielewskiet et al, 2004;Kapur et al, 2007;Saue & Kadaja, 2010) and the world (Lobell et al, 2007;Song et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2008). Air temperature may affect the quantity and quality of the yield directly and indirectly (Tshiala & Olwoch, 2010).…”

“…Similarly, positive temperature trends have been confirmed for the growing seasons of, e.g., onions and cucumber (Kalbarczyk, 2009a(Kalbarczyk, , 2009b(Kalbarczyk, , 2010a. Positive trends of air temperature in the growing seasons of crop plants have also been confirmed in other parts of the world (Bonofiglio et al, 2009;Matsumoto, 2010;Parey, 2008;Peng et al, 2004). Since the mid-20 th century changes in air temperature values have had influence on the course of the growth and development of plants.…”

“…Since the second half of the 20 th century in many places of Europe, changes of average phenological dates have been observed in both the world of wild-growing and crop plants (Ahas et al, 2002;Bonofiglio et al, 2009;Chmielewski et al, 2004;Menzel, 2000;Menzel & Estrella, 2001). The most frequently shown direction of change has been in the acceleration of phenological dates, especially in relation to spring and summer dates.…”

A Fourteen - Year Monitoring in a Phenological Garden, Study of Plant Species, Climate Trends and Their Relationships in Central Italy

“…In temperate zones, the reproductive cycle of plants is largely controlled by temperature and day length, while at lower latitudes, rainfall and evapo-transpiration also need to be taken into account (Menzel et al, 2001;Estrella et al, 2007;Orlandi et al, , 2013Bonofiglio et al, 2009). Given these relationships, a significant increase in global temperature should also be visible along series of long-term phenological observations.…”

Comparison of phenological, aerobiological and melissopalynological patterns of Olea europaea

“…The flowering period of Olea europaea L. is strongly correlated to the yearly temperature variations (Chuine et al, 1998;Bonofiglio et al, 2009) and thus, several authors have proposed and used this plant as an indicator for climatic change (Osborne et al, 2000;Orlandi et al, 2005).…”