Abstract Detail

Phenology and Conservation Implications

Rafferty, Nicole [1], Caradonna, Paul [2], Burkle, Laura [3], McKinney, Amy [4], Bronstein, Judith [5].

Phenology of species interactions in a changing world: an assessment and illustration of approaches.

Concern regarding the effects of climate change-induced phenological shifts on species interactions has led to a recent surge in research, centered on three chief questions: how interactions have changed, how interactions will change, and why interactions are changing. The ultimate goal is to understand the consequences of phenological change for species and their interactions. This research has relied on widely disparate approaches, each with inherent strengths and weaknesses. We consider the approaches that have been used to investigate the phenologies of interspecific interactions and weigh the merits and limitations of each of five approaches: natural experiments and observations, interpretation of long-term data, experimental manipulations, mechanistic models, and simulations and theoretical models. We illustrate the use of two of these approaches with two case studies from our own work on plant-pollinator interactions. The first study uses an observational approach to explore the relationship between flowering time in manzanita (Arctostaphylos pungens) and pollination success in a sky island habitat in the Sonoran Desert (Arizona); the second uses an experimental approach to advance and delay flowering onset of 14 perennial plant species in a tallgrass prairie (Wisconsin) to ask how these shifts affect pollinator visitation rates. We provide a roadmap for selecting the most robust approach to studying climate change-induced phenological shifts as a function of the question of interest. We particularly highlight the value of combining approaches.

Broader Impacts:

1 - University of Arizona, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 1041 E Lowell St, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
2 - University of Arizona, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
3 - Montana State University, Ecology Department, P.O. Box 173460, Lewis Hall, Bozeman, MT, 57917, USA
4 - University Of Maryland, Biology, Biology-Psychology Building, College Park, MD, 20742, USA
5 - University Of Arizona, Department Of Ecology And Evolutionary Biology, BioSciences West, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

Keywords:
phenology
climate change
Flowering time
pollination
plant-animal interactions
species interactions.

Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: C7
Location: Union C/Hyatt
Date: Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Time: 2:15 PM
Number: C7004
Abstract ID:294