Rapid evolution of phenology during range expansion with recent climate change

Effects of climate change and cultivar on summer maize phenology

To identify countermeasures to the effects of climate warming on crop production, we mustunderstand the changes in crop phenology and the relationships between phenology and climatechange and cultivar. We used summer maize phenological and climate data in the North ChinaPlain, collected from 1981 to 2010. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal trends inphenological data and lengths of different...

Evolution on the move: specialization on widespread resources associated with rapid range expansion in response to climate change.

Generalist species and phenotypes are expected to perform best under rapid environmental change. In contrast to this view that generalists will inherit the Earth, we find that increased use of a single host plant is associated with the recent climate-driven range expansion of the UK brown argus butterfly. Field assays of female host plant preference across the UK reveal a diversity of adaptatio...

Plant Phenology And Distribution In Relation To Recent Climate Change

Rapid shifts in plant distribution with recent climate change.

A change in climate would be expected to shift plant distribution as species expand in newly favorable areas and decline in increasingly hostile locations. We compared surveys of plant cover that were made in 1977 and 2006-2007 along a 2,314-m elevation gradient in Southern California's Santa Rosa Mountains. Southern California's climate warmed at the surface, the precipitation variability incr...

Avian migration phenology and global climate change.

There is mounting evidence that global climate change has extended growing seasons, changed distribution patterns, and altered the phenology of flowering, breeding, and migration. For migratory birds, the timing of arrival on breeding territories and over-wintering grounds is a key determinant of reproductive success, survivorship, and fitness. But we know little of the factors controlling earl...