Collaborative Research: Phenological mismatch between trees and wildflowers mediated by environmental variability and plant invasions

合作研究：环境变化和植物入侵介导的树木和野花之间的物候不匹配

• 批准号: 1936877
• 负责人: Richard Primack
• 金额: $ 24.2万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-02-01 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1936877&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Phenological; mismatch; between

In temperate forests, most plant species are understory wildflowers. The seasonal timing of biological events such as leaf out, flowering, and seed production is especially critical for forest wildflowers that rely on high light in the spring, before trees leaf out and reduce light to the forest floor. New research suggests the timing of leaf out of overstory trees may shift faster than understory wildflowers in response to warmer spring temperatures. Such mismatches in leaf out timing of different plant species could reduce wildflower populations and affect forest diversity and productivity. The early leaf out times and dense foliage of nonnative, invasive shrubs could further reduce light levels for native wildflowers. This project explores how warming temperatures may cause a mismatch in lifecycle events of trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. Specifically, the project measures whether trees, shrubs, and flowers respond differently to temperature cues, whether this mismatch is a global phenomenon, and how this affects the ability of wildflowers to grow and reproduce. This project connects the public interest in forests to environmental variability and invasive species. The public can access the results through popular media, public lectures, and social media. The project team will develop training for museum educators so they can infuse themes of forest change into exhibits and conversations with museum visitors. In collaboration with museum educators, the project will host K-12 teacher workshops to integrate forest monitoring and local examples of environmental variability into school curricula. Direct measurements of the consequences of environment-induced phenological mismatches between interacting species are rare, and disruptions in non-trophic competitive interactions between plant species are often overlooked. In addition, related impacts of species invasions are not well integrated into phenological studies. The impacts of these phenological disruptions may be contributing to widely-observed population declines and poor performance of species that weakly respond to warming temperatures. This project will uniquely combine historical records (observations of Henry David Thoreau), contemporary phenological monitoring, museum herbarium collections, and field experiments to document and understand ecological mismatches between forest trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. Field shading experiments will simulate effects of environmental variability, species invasions, and ecological mismatches on wildflower performance. Field and growth chamber experiments will test mechanisms determining leaf-out phenology. Thousands of recently digitized herbarium specimens will be leveraged to quantify how overstory-understory temporal mismatch varies across temporal, climatic, and biogeographic gradients.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在温带森林中，大多数植物物种是林下野花。生物事件（如落叶，开花和种子生产）的季节性时间对于依赖春季强光的森林野花尤其重要，在树木落叶和减少森林地面的光线之前。新的研究表明，由于春季气温变暖，上层树木的叶子脱落时间可能比下层野花更快。不同植物物种的叶子脱落时间的这种不匹配可能会减少野花的数量，影响森林的多样性和生产力。早期的落叶时间和密集的叶子的非本地，入侵灌木可以进一步降低本地野花的光照水平。这个项目探讨了变暖的温度如何可能导致树木，灌木和野花的生命周期事件不匹配。具体来说，该项目测量树木、灌木和花卉对温度线索的反应是否不同，这种不匹配是否是一种全球现象，以及这如何影响野花的生长和繁殖能力。该项目将公众对森林的兴趣与环境变化和入侵物种联系起来。公众可以通过大众媒体、公开讲座和社交媒体获得结果。项目小组将为博物馆教育工作者提供培训，使他们能够将森林变化的主题融入展览和与博物馆参观者的对话中。该项目将与博物馆教育工作者合作，举办K-12教师讲习班，将森林监测和当地环境变化的例子纳入学校课程。环境引起的相互作用的物种之间的物候不匹配的后果的直接测量是罕见的，和植物物种之间的非营养竞争相互作用的中断往往被忽视。此外，物种入侵的相关影响没有很好地融入物候学研究。这些物候中断的影响可能导致广泛观察到的人口下降和对气温变暖反应微弱的物种表现不佳。该项目将独特地结合联合收割机历史记录（亨利大卫梭罗的观察），当代物候监测，博物馆标本馆收藏和实地实验，以记录和了解森林树木，灌木和野花之间的生态不匹配。田间遮荫实验将模拟环境变化、物种入侵和生态不匹配对野花表现的影响。田间和生长室实验将测试决定叶出物候的机制。数以千计的最近数字化标本馆标本将被用来量化如何overstory-understory时间不匹配的变化跨越时间，气候和地理梯度。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。