title: Responses of sequential and hierarchical phenological events to warming and cooling in alpine meadows.
abstract: Organisms' life cycles consist of hierarchical stages, from a single phenological stage (for example, flowering within a season), to vegetative and reproductive phases, to the total lifespan of the individual. Yet phenological events are typically studied in isolation, limiting our understanding of life history responses to climate change. Here, we reciprocally transfer plant communities along an elevation gradient to investigate plastic changes in the duration of sequential phenological events for six alpine species. We show that prolonged flowering leads to longer reproductive phases and activity periods when plants are moved to warmer locations. In contrast, shorter post-fruiting leaf and flowering stages led to shorter vegetative and reproductive phases, respectively, which resulted in shorter activity periods when plants were moved to cooler conditions. Therefore, phenological responses to warming and cooling do not simply mirror one another in the opposite direction, and low temperature may limit reproductive allocation in the alpine region.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Xine
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Fandong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China.|CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|Naqu Integrated Observation and Research Station of Ecology and Environment, Tibet University and Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lasa 850012, China.
authors.forename: Shiping
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Haishan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 6B, Aarhus CDK-8000, Denmark.
authors.forename: Amy M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Iler
authors.affiliation: Binhai Research Institute in Tianjin, Tianjin 300457, China.
authors.forename: Jichuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China.
authors.forename: Zhenhua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China.
authors.forename: Caiyun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Shujuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Lirong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Yaoming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Tsechoe
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dorji
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China.
authors.forename: Yingnian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Catalonia 08193, Spain.|CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CEAB-CSIC-UAB, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Catalonia 08193, Spain.
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peñuelas
authors.affiliation: Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba 305-8604, Japan.
authors.forename: Mingyuan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China.
authors.forename: Xinquan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Oregon State University Agriculture and Natural Resource Program at Eastern Oregon University, La Grande, Oregon 97850, USA.
authors.forename: Guojie
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D003080:Cold Temperature; D017753:Ecosystem; D065948:Grassland; D006358:Hot Temperature; D012098:Reproduction