Flower production decreases with warmer and more humid atmospheric conditions in a western Amazonian forest
Corresponding Author
Jason Vleminckx
Department of Biology of Organisms, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, 1050 Belgium
Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511 USA
School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511 USA
Author for correspondence:
Jason Vleminckx
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorJ. Aaron Hogan
Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611 USA
Search for more papers by this authorMargaret R. Metz
Department of Biology, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR, 97219 USA
Search for more papers by this authorLiza S. Comita
School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511 USA
Search for more papers by this authorSimon A. Queenborough
School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511 USA
Search for more papers by this authorS. Joseph Wright
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado, Balboa, 0843-03092 Panama
Search for more papers by this authorRenato Valencia
Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, 170143 Ecuador
Search for more papers by this authorMilton Zambrano
Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, 170143 Ecuador
Search for more papers by this authorNancy C. Garwood
School of Biological Sciences, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, 62901 USA
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Jason Vleminckx
Department of Biology of Organisms, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, 1050 Belgium
Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511 USA
School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511 USA
Author for correspondence:
Jason Vleminckx
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorJ. Aaron Hogan
Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611 USA
Search for more papers by this authorMargaret R. Metz
Department of Biology, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR, 97219 USA
Search for more papers by this authorLiza S. Comita
School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511 USA
Search for more papers by this authorSimon A. Queenborough
School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511 USA
Search for more papers by this authorS. Joseph Wright
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado, Balboa, 0843-03092 Panama
Search for more papers by this authorRenato Valencia
Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, 170143 Ecuador
Search for more papers by this authorMilton Zambrano
Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, 170143 Ecuador
Search for more papers by this authorNancy C. Garwood
School of Biological Sciences, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, 62901 USA
Search for more papers by this authorSummary
- Climate models predict that everwet western Amazonian forests will face warmer and wetter atmospheric conditions, and increased cloud cover. It remains unclear how these changes will impact plant reproductive performance, such as flowering, which plays a central role in sustaining food webs and forest regeneration. Warmer and wetter nights may cause reduced flower production, via increased dark respiration rates or alteration in the reliability of flowering cue-based processes. Additionally, more persistent cloud cover should reduce the amounts of solar irradiance, which could limit flower production.
- We tested whether interannual variation in flower production has changed in response to fluctuations in irradiance, rainfall, temperature, and relative humidity over 18 yrs in an everwet forest in Ecuador.
- Analyses of 184 plant species showed that flower production declined as nighttime temperature and relative humidity increased, suggesting that warmer nights and greater atmospheric water saturation negatively impacted reproduction. Species varied in their flowering responses to climatic variables but this variation was not explained by life form or phylogeny.
- Our results shed light on how plant communities will respond to climatic changes in this everwet region, in which the impacts of these changes have been poorly studied compared with more seasonal Neotropical areas.
Open Research
Data availability
The data supporting the results are archived in a Harvard Dataverse repository at doi: 10.7910/DVN/PCGFMZ.
Supporting Information
Filename | Description |
---|---|
nph19388-sup-0001-DatasetS1.xlsxExcel 2007 spreadsheet , 42.7 KB |
Dataset S1 List of species with their family and additional sampling information. |
nph19388-sup-0002-DatasetS2.txtplain text document, 6.6 MB |
Dataset S2 Phenological data. |
nph19388-sup-0003-DatasetS3.txtplain text document, 60.3 KB |
Dataset S3 Climate data. |
nph19388-sup-0004-DatasetS4.txtplain text document, 82.6 KB |
Dataset S4 Flowering species composition data for each census. |
nph19388-sup-0005-DatasetS5.txtplain text document, 32.6 KB |
Dataset S5 List of species names with corresponding acronyms. |
nph19388-sup-0006-SupInfo.pdfPDF document, 3.4 MB |
Fig. S1 Patterns of missing values among climate variables before imputation. Fig. S2 Observed and imputed mean monthly values of each climate variable across the study period. Fig. S3 Post hoc analyses evaluating the reliability of the imputations of the missing climate variable values. Fig. S4 Total number of flowering trap–census observations for each species for each year. Fig. S5 Mean number of trap–census flowering observations for each month and each species. Fig. S6 Visual comparison of the temporal variation of irradiance before and after MSR randomisation. Fig. S7 Slope coefficient quantifying the effect of each climate variable on flower production, with or without a 1-yr time lag between the response and the explanatory variable. Fig. S8 Comparison of annual species flower production response to each climate variable among guilds and seasonal flowering optima. Fig. S9 Phylogeny and species response to each climate variable. Fig. S10 Slope coefficients examining the relative effects of two climate variables (TMIN and irradiance, and TMAX and irradiance) on the annual community flower production. Fig. S11 Mean annual rainfall amounts for each year of the study period. |
nph19388-sup-0007-MethodS1.Rapplication/Rstudio, 74.4 KB |
Methods S1 R code used to perform our data analysis. Notes S1 Comparison of flower production response to climate variables across guilds, lineages, and according to the peak flowering month of species. Table S1 Tests of the phylogenetic signal for the effect of each climate variable on flower production. Please note: Wiley is not responsible for the content or functionality of any Supporting Information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing material) should be directed to the New Phytologist Central Office. |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
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