Observing shifts in phenology of tropical flowering plants

Abstract

Changes in flowering can cause misalignment with pollinators and seed dispersers, thus causing changes in fitness of both the plant species and their mutualists. Phenological shifts in tropical flowering plants are poorly documented despite the widely understood importance of measuring flowering phenology. It has been hypothesized that changes in tropical flowering have been less severe than those in non-tropical latitudes due to minimal change in temperature annually. Furthermore, many tropical species flower continuously throughout the year, as they are not restricted by a cold induced dormancy period. To test this hypothesis, we used museum specimens to examine shifts in phenology of flowering plant species from across the global tropics. We identified species that flower once a year, every year, for four consecutive months or less, as these species can best be compared to temperate studies. This selection criteria resulted in 33 species across the tropics. Between 1794 and 2024, we documented an average absolute shift in flowering of 2.04 days per decade across all species, with a range of 0.037 days per decade to 14.10 days per decade. This shift is comparable to changes seen elsewhere around the globe, including those in temperate, boreal and alpine desert plants. This change has been shown to be severe enough to cause interspecific misalignment. Our work shows that changes in tropical flowering phenology are not insulated from the impacts of climate change, as previously assumed.