title: Flowering phenological changes in relation to climate change in Hungary.
abstract: The importance of long-term plant phenological time series is growing in monitoring of climate change impacts worldwide. To detect trends and assess possible influences of climate in Hungary, we studied flowering phenological records for six species (Convallaria majalis, Taraxacum officinale, Syringa vulgaris, Sambucus nigra, Robinia pseudoacacia, Tilia cordata) based on phenological observations from the Hungarian Meteorological Service recorded between 1952 and 2000. Altogether, four from the six examined plant species showed significant advancement in flowering onset with an average rate of 1.9-4.4 days per decade. We found that it was the mean temperature of the 2-3 months immediately preceding the mean flowering date, which most prominently influenced its timing. In addition, several species were affected by the late winter (January-March) values of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. We also detected sporadic long-term effects for all species, where climatic variables from earlier months exerted influence with varying sign and little recognizable pattern: the temperature/NAO of the previous autumn (August-December) seems to influence Convallaria, and the temperature/precipitation of the previous spring (February-April) has some effect on Tilia flowering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Systematics, Ecology and Theoretical Biology, Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, 1117, Budapest, Hungary. barbara.szabo.elte@gmail.com.|Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Alkotmány út 2-4, 2163, Vácrátót, Hungary. barbara.szabo.elte@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Szabó
authors.affiliation: Hungarian Meteorological Service, Kitaibel Pál u. 1, 1024, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Enikő
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vincze
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Alkotmány út 2-4, 2163, Vácrátót, Hungary.
authors.forename: Bálint
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Czúcz
mesh_terms: D057231:Climate Change; D035264:Flowers / Q000254:growth & development*; D006814:Hungary; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000254:growth & development*; D012621:Seasons; D013696:Temperature
keywords: Beginning of flowering; Central Europe; Long-term effects; North Atlantic Oscillation; Precipitation; Spring phenology