Flowering time responses to climate differ between species in mesic and xeric habitats in Alberta

Abstract

Ongoing climate change is likely to put increased selection pressures on the phenology of plants, yet for many species their abilities to respond to environmental cues are unknown. The present research focuses on using herbarium specimens to examine how 14 native plant species in Alberta have adjusted or adapted to changes in temperature and precipitation over the past century. We specifically investigate the impact of flowering-time responses and determine (1) whether herbaria collections contain sufficient evidence of these phenological responses to climate in plant species in Alberta, and (2) whether the responses are dependent on the typical moisture regime of their habitat. We compared plants from mesic and xeric habitats in terms of their phenological responses to air temperature and precipitation. In this study, the taxonomic relationships between the species were considered by selecting 14 species representing seven different angiosperm orders (one pair of species for each order). By collating data on the peak flowering date over the past century using preserved specimens, we found that on average, species from xeric habitats are more responsive to temperature, but not precipitation. This tendency might be explained by the thermal properties of mesic habitats, a finding that may lead to ways to predict the degree to which environmental cues will govern flowering.