PKU scientists reveals phenological divergence between plants and animals under climate change

(Press-News.org) Peking University, December 19, 2024:  A collaborative study led by Piao Shilong’s team and Zhang Yao’s team from the Institute of Carbon Neutrality at Peking University reveals the distinct mechanisms by which plants and animals respond to climate change in their life-cycle phenology. This research provides comprehensive global-scale evidence on the asynchronous phenological changes between plants and animals.
 

Why it matters: 

Climate change has altered the timing of recurring biological cycles in both plants and animals. Asynchrony in phenological changes between plants and animals can disrupt trophic interactions, such as food chains, and ultimately threaten ecosystem stability and functionality. While numerous phenological observations have been documented for plants and animals, most studies have been limited to regional or national scales. This research synthesizes phenological observations on a globe scale, offering critical insights into the impact of climate change on phenological synchrony across landscapes. 

 

Key Findings:

The research team compiled a global phenological dataset, encompassing 451,956 plant phenological time series (covering 1,629 species or genera across 248 events) and 43,857 animal phenological time series (covering 949 species or genera across 432 events).

The later the plant phenophase, the more it advances over time: Analysis indicates that plant phenophases during spring and summer predominantly advanced with shortened intervals between consecutive events. Nearly 30% of spring-summer phenological shifts in plants are influenced by prior events, creating a time-dependent response where warming effects accumulate and amplify over seasons.

Animals show less pronounced observation on phenological changes at the start of the active season tahn for plants: Animals show no consistent time-dependent trends across different phenological events. The first occurrences of Aves, Mammalia and Amphibia are delayed at various rates, while that for Insecta exhibits a slight advancement rate. These shifts are much weaker than spring leafing or flowering of plants.

Temporal dependency of phenophases in plants: The research found a strong temporal linkage between neighbouring plant phenophases during spring and summer, with a clear trend towards shortening of intervals, potentially due to the increased plant productivity caused by warming and carbon dioxide fertilization, shortening the time required to produce foliage, flowers or fruits.

 

Significance: 

This study underscores the intrinsic connections between phenological events in plants and the contrasting mechanisms in animals, shedding light on the increasing asynchrony caused by climate change. The overall advancement of late-season phenophases for plants is more significant than that for animals. Such discrepancies may indicate different (relative importance of) external and internal drivers for plant and animal phenology. The findings provide a new perspective for understanding trophic-level mismatches and predicting ecosystem stability under ongoing global warming.


The paper, titled “Phenological divergence between plants and animals under climate change”, was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Lang Weiguang , a postdoctoral researcher at the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, is the first author. Piao Shi-Long and Zhang Yao are co-corresponding authors. 

Link to the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02597-0

*This article is featured in PKU News' "Why It Matters" series. More from this series.

Written by: Wu You
Edited by: Aden Tan
Source: PKU News (Chinese)

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