Shifts in flowering phenology in response to spring temperatures in eastern Tennessee.

PREMISE: Plant phenological shifts are among the clearest indicators of the effects of climate change. In North America, numerous studies in the northeastern United States have demonstrated earlier spring flowering compared to historical records. However, few studies have examined phenological shifts in the southeastern United States, a highly biodiverse region of North America characterized by dramatic variations in abiotic conditions over small geographic areas. METHODS: We examined 1000+ digitized herbarium records along with location-specific temperature data to analyze phenological shifts of 14 spring-flowering species in two adjacent ecoregions in eastern Tennessee. RESULTS: Spring-flowering plant communities in the Blue Ridge and the Ridge and Valley ecoregions differed in their sensitivity to temperature; plants in the Ridge and Valley flower 0.73 days earlier/°C on average compared to 1.09 days/°C for plants in the Blue Ridge. Additionally, for the majority of species in both ecoregions, flowering is sensitive to spring temperature; i.e., in warmer years, most species flowered earlier. Despite this sensitivity, we did not find support for community-level shifts in flowering within eastern Tennessee in recent decades, likely because increases in annual temperature in the southeast are driven primarily by warming summer (rather than spring) temperatures. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the importance of including ecoregion as a predictor in phenological models for capturing variation in sensitivity among populations and suggest that even small shifts in temperature can have dramatic effects on phenology in response to climate in the southeastern United States.

Clines in traits compared over two decades in a plant hybrid zone.

Background and Aims: Clines in traits across hybrid zones reflect a balance between natural selection and gene flow. Changes over time in average values for traits, and especially the shapes of their clines, are rarely investigated in plants, but could result from evolution in an unstable hybrid zone. Differences in clines between floral and vegetative traits could indicate different strengths of divergent selection. Methods: Five floral and two vegetative traits were measured in 12 populations along an elevational gradient spanning a natural hybrid zone between Ipomopsis aggregata and Ipomopsis tenuituba. We compared clines in the floral traits with those measured 25 years ago. Observed changes in mean trait values were compared with predictions based on prior estimates of natural selection. We also compared the steepness and position of clines between the floral and vegetative traits. Key Results: Corolla length has increased over five generations to an extent that matches predictions from measurements of phenotypic selection and heritability. The shape of its cline, and that of other traits, has not changed detectably. Clines varied across traits, but not all floral traits showed steeper clines than did vegetative traits. Both suites of morphological traits had steeper clines than did neutral molecular markers. Conclusions: The increase in corolla length provides a rare example of a match between predicted and observed evolution of a plant trait in natural populations. The clinal properties are consistent with the hypothesis that habitat-mediated divergent selection on vegetative traits and pollinator-mediated selection on floral traits both maintain species differences across the hybrid zone.

Potential interactive effects between invasive Lumbricus terrestris earthworms and the invasive plant Alliaria petiolata on a native plant Podophyllum peltatum in northeastern Ohio, USA.

We test whether the invasive earthworm Lumbricus terrestris and leaf litter of the invasive herbaceous plant Alliaria petiolata interact to influence the native plant, Podophyllum peltatum, using both observational field data and a multi-year experiment. We hypothesized invader interactive effects on the native plant might result from either changes in allelochemical distribution in the soil or nutrient availability mediated by the invasive earthworm pulling leaf litter down into the soil. Within the field data we found that Alliaria petiolata presence and higher soil nitrogen correlated with reduced Podophyllum peltatum cover, and no evidence for an invader-invader interaction. Within the factorial experiment, we found a super-additive effect of the two invaders on plant biomass only when activated carbon was present. In the absence of activated carbon, there were no differences in Podophyllum peltatum biomass across treatments. In the presence of activated carbon, Podophyllum peltatum biomass was significantly reduced by the presence of both Lumbricus terrestris and Alliaria petiolata leaf litter. The absence of an effect of Alliaria petiolata leaves without activated carbon, combined with a failure to detect arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization, suggests that indirect effects of allelochemicals on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi were not the primary driver of treatment responses. Rather direct nutrient availability might influence a potential interaction between these invaders. Leaf nitrogen content was higher and leaf CO2 concentration was lower in the presence of Lumbricus terrestris, but treatment did not influence maximum photosynthetic rate. While the field data do not suggest a negative interaction between these invaders, the experiment suggests that such an interaction is possible with greater environmental stress, such as increasing nitrogen deposition. Further, even plants with rapid physiological responses to increased nitrogen availability may have other physiological limits on growth that prevent them from compensating from the harm caused by multiple invaders.