Abstract Detail

Tools, Standards, Techniques, and Methods for Using Herbarium Specimens in Phenological Research

Mazer, Susan [1], Park, Isaac [1].

Climate affects the rate at which species successively flower: capturing an emergent property of regional floras using herbarium specimen data.

Climate affects the first flowering date (FFD) of many species. Little is known, however, about how climate influences the emergent properties of regional floras, including the rate at which taxa sequentially initiate flowering. Here, we evaluate the effects of local climate on the seasonal distribution of FFDs among species across North America using the electronic records for >874,000 herbarium specimens, representing >2,500 taxa. We observed that local temperature influences the rate at which species successively flower. As mean annual temperature increases over space, this rate increases among taxa that flower in mid- to late spring, but decreases among the latest-flowering taxa. We determined that these temperature-related changes in the rate at which species successively flower are due to climate-induced intraspecific changes in FFD rather than to differences in taxonomic composition among climatically distinct regions. If future warming intensifies this effect, then inter-specific competition for pollinator visitation among both sets of co-flowering species would also be expected to change.

1 - University of California, Santa Barbara, Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, UCEN Road, Santa Barbara, CA, 931016, USA

Keywords:
phenology
First flowering date
herbarium specimens
Climate change
Community phenology.

Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Session: SY3, Tools, Standards, Techniques, and Methods for Using Herbarium Specimens in Phenological Research
Location: 103/Mayo Civic Center
Date: Tuesday, July 24th, 2018
Time: 9:15 AM
Number: SY3004
Abstract ID:61
Candidate for Awards:None