title: Phylogenetic conservatism and climate factors shape flowering phenology in alpine meadows.
abstract: The study of phylogenetic conservatism in alpine plant phenology is critical for predicting climate change impacts; currently we have a poor understanding of how phylogeny and climate factors interactively influence plant phenology. Therefore, we explored the influence of phylogeny and climate factors on flowering phenology in alpine meadows. For two different types of alpine plant communities, we recorded phenological data, including flowering peak, first flower budding, first flowering, first fruiting and the flowering end for 62 species over the course of 5 years (2008-2012). From sequences in two plastid regions, we constructed phylogenetic trees. We used Blomberg's K and Pagel's lambda to assess the phylogenetic signal in phenological traits and species' phenological responses to climate factors. We found a significant phylogenetic signal in the date of all reproductive phenological events and in species' phenological responses to weekly day length and temperature. The number of species in flower was strongly associated with the weekly day lengths and followed by the weekly temperature prior to phenological activity. Based on phylogenetic eigenvector regression (PVR) analysis, we found a highly shared influence of phylogeny and climate factors on alpine species flowering phenology. Our results suggest the phylogenetic conservatism in both flowering and fruiting phenology may depend on the similarity of responses to external environmental cues among close relatives.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agroecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, People's Republic of China.|Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto-Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada.|Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Wilcocks Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada.
authors.forename: Lanping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agroecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhikuo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto-Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada.|Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Wilcocks Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada.|State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Dynamics and Conservation of Guangdong, Higher Education Institutes, College of Ecology and Evolution, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Marc W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Cadotte
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agroecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agroecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guanguang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto-Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada.|Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Wilcocks Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada.
authors.forename: Lanna S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agroecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, People's Republic of China. guozdu@lzu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Guozhen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Du
mesh_terms: D057231:Climate Change; D035264:Flowers; D065948:Grassland; D010802:Phylogeny; D012098:Reproduction; D012621:Seasons
keywords: Alpine plant phenology; Day length; Flowering peak date; Phenological traits; Phylogenetic eigenvector regression; Phylogenetic signal