Climate warming increases spring phenological differences among temperate trees

• DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15301
• Publication Date: 2020-08-05T22:47:38Z
• Authors: Xiaojun Geng; Yongshuo H. Fu; Fanghua Hao; Xuancheng Zhou; Xuan Zhang; Guodong Yin; Yann Vitasse; Shilong Piao; Kechang Niu; Hans J. De Boeck; Annette Menzel; Josep Peñuelas
• Keywords: Flushing; Chilling Requirement

Abstract Climate warming has substantially advanced spring leaf flushing, but winter chilling and photoperiod co‐determine the flushing process in ways that vary among species. As a result, interspecific differences phenology (IDSP) are expected to change with climate warming, which may, turn, induce negative or positive ecological consequences. However, temporal of IDSP at large spatiotemporal scales remains unclear. In this study, we analyzed long‐term in‐situ observations (1951–2016) six, coexisting temperate tree species from 305 sites across Central Europe found phenological ranking did not when comparing rapidly period 1984–2016 marginally 1951–1983. advance was significantly larger early‐flushing EFS (6.7 ± 0.3 days) than late‐flushing LFS (5.9 0.2 between two periods, indicating extended IDSP. This extension could be explained by temperature sensitivity LFS; however, climatic warming‐induced heat accumulation effects on were linked greater requirement higher LFS, drove shifts Continued is further extend trees, associated implications for ecosystem function.