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Innately shorter vegetation periods in North American species explain native–non-native phenological asymmetries

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 1, pages 1655–1660 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

The length of the vegetation period (LVP), which is the time between leaf-out and leaf senescence, affects numerous ecosystem functions, including biogeochemical cycles and interspecific interactions. The evolutionary mechanisms determining LVP, however, are poorly understood, and thus, it is unknown whether innate LVPs differ between eastern North American (ENA), European and East Asian species. Here we monitored LVP in 2014–2015 in 396 Northern Hemisphere woody species grown in a common garden. We found that ENA species, under the same conditions, have three weeks (11%) shorter vegetation periods than their European and East Asian relatives, because their leaves flushed 9 ± 4 and 13 ± 4 days later and senesced 9 ± 4 and 11 ± 4 days earlier. LVPs of species introduced from Eurasia into ENA are therefore longer than those of native species, suggesting that the spread of non-natives might alter seasonal forest productivity in ENA. LVP between naturalized invasive and non-invasive species, however, did not differ, rejecting the common assumption that longer leaf presentation generally fosters invasive success. A likely explanation for the shorter LVP of ENA species is that region’s uniquely high inter-annual temperature variation. These results highlight the footprint of regional climate history, which will affect forest response to climate change.

Understanding the drivers of leaf-out and leaf senescence is essential for forecasting consequences of anthropogenic climate change on temperate-zone forest ecology and economics1,2,3. Correlative studies have shown that earlier bud burst occurs in response to climate warming, with leaf-out in woody species advancing by 3–8 days for each 1 °C increase in air temperature4,5,6, although winter chilling also influences leaf-out7,8. Spring photoperiod is an important leaf-out signal only for a few species9. The relative importance of the three cues mostly depends on the historical climate conditions under which species evolved, leading to latitudinal6,9 and longitudinal10 differences in leaf-out strategies. How climate change affects the timing of the end of the growing season remains unresolved5,11. Different from spring phenology, leaf senescence in the fall appears to be under strong photoperiod control, with temperature having a modulating role12, but investigations have been limited to a few species13. To forecast lengths of vegetation period (LVPs) under climate warming, information on a broad sample of species from different biomes and clades is needed. This need can be met by taking advantage of the thousands of non-native woody species growing in botanical gardens6,10,14,15. Senescence and leaf-out strategies are largely genetically determined16, and the phenological responses in woody plants growing permanently outdoors in botanical garden are expected to reflect adaptations to temperature, day length, humidity and precipitation in their native biomes.

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Fig. 1: LVP of ENA, European and East Asian species.
Fig. 2: LVP of naturalized non-invasive, invasive and native species in ENA and Europe.

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Acknowledgements

The study was part of the KLIMAGRAD project sponsored by the ‘Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Umwelt und Gesundheit’. We thank S. Petrone for help with the phenological observations and R. Ricklefs for comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Systematic Botany and Mycology, Department of Biology, Munich University (LMU), 80638, Munich, Germany

    Constantin M. Zohner & Susanne S. Renner

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  1. Constantin M. Zohner
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  2. Susanne S. Renner
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Contributions

C.M.Z. designed the study and performed the analyses. C.M.Z. and S.S.R. co-wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Constantin M. Zohner.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figures 1–8

Supplementary Table 1

Leaf out and senescence dates at the Munich Botanical Garden in 2014 and 2015 giving each species order, family, maximum attainable growth height, and occurrence status in ENA and EU

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Zohner, C.M., Renner, S.S. Innately shorter vegetation periods in North American species explain native–non-native phenological asymmetries. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 1655–1660 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0307-3

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