Temperature and Photoperiod Effects on Vicia faba Phenology Simulated by CROPGRO-Fababean

Models may be useful tools to design efficient crop management practices provided they are able to accurately simulate the effect of weather variables on crop performance. The objective of this work was to accurately simulate the effects of temperature and day length on the rate of vegetative node expression, time to flowering, time to first pod, and time to physiological maturity of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) using the CROPGRO-Fababean model. Field experiments with multiple sowing dates were conducted in northwest Spain during 3 yr (17 sowing dates: 12 used for calibration and five for validation). Observed daily minimum and maximum air temperatures were within the range of ?9.0 and 39.2°C and observed photoperiods within 10.1 to 16.6 h. Optimization of thermal models to predict leaf appearance raised the base temperature (Tb) from the commonly used value of 0.0 to 3.9°C. In addition, photothermal models detected a small accelerating effect of day length on the rate of leaf appearance. Accurate prediction of the flowering date required incorporating day length, but the solved Tb approached negative values, close to ?4°C. All the reproductive phases after flowering were affected only by temperature, but postanthesis Tb was also mayor que0°C and approached values close to 8°C for time to first pod set and 5.5°C for time from first pod to physiological maturity. Our data indicated that cardinal base temperatures are not the same across all phenological phases.

Fenología y capacidad de dispersión de Monochamus galloprovincialis (Olivier 1795) en la Península Ibérica = Phenology and dispersal ability of Monochamus galloprovincialis (Olivier 1795) at Iberian Peninsula

La aparición y avance de la enfermedad del marchitamiento del pino (Pine Wilt Desease, PWD), causada por Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Nematoda; Aphelenchoididae), el nematodo de la madera del pino (NMP), en el suroeste de Europa, ha puesto de manifiesto la necesidad de estudiar la fenología y la dispersión de su único vector conocido en Europa, Monochamus galloprovincialis (Col., Cerambycidae). El análisis de 12 series de emergencias entre 2010 y 2014, registradas en Palencia, València y Teruel, con material procedente de diversos puntos de la península ibérica, demostró una alta variabilidad en la fenología de M. galloprovincialis y la divergencia térmica respecto de las poblaciones portuguesas. Para éstas, el establecimiento de los umbrales térmicos de desarrollo de las larvas post-dormantes del vector (12,2 y 33,5ºC) permitió la predicción de la emergencia mediana para la fecha en la que se acumulaban de 822 grados-día. Ninguna de las series analizadas en este trabajo necesitó de dichos grados-día estimados para la emergencia mediana. Asimismo, la emergencia se adelantó en las regiones más calurosas, mientras que se retrasó en las zonas más templadas. Más allá de la posible variabilidad entre poblaciones locales peninsulares, se detectaron indicios de que la diferencia en la acumulación de calor durante el otoño puede afectar el grado de maduración de las larvas invernantes, y su posterior patrón temporal de emergencia. Por último, también fueron observados comportamientos de protandria en las emergencias. Respecto a la fenología de su vuelo, entre los años 2010 y 2015, fueron ejecutados un total de 8 experimentos de captura de M. galloprovincialis mediante trampas cebadas con atrayentes en diferentes regiones (Castellón, Teruel, Segovia y Alicante) permitiendo el seguimiento del periodo de vuelo. Su análisis permitió constatar la disminución de las capturas y el acortamiento del periodo de vuelo con la altitud, el inicio del vuelo en el mes de mayo/junio a partir de los 14ºC de temperatura media diaria, la influencia de las altas temperaturas en la disminución de las capturas estivales (potencial causante de perfiles bimodales en las curvas de vuelo en las zonas menos frías), la evolución de la proporción de sexos a lo largo del periodo de vuelo (que muestra una mayor captura de hembras al inicio y de machos al final) y el comportamiento diurno y ligado a las altas temperaturas del vuelo circadiano del insecto. Dos redes de muestreo sistemático de insectos saproxílicos instaladas en la Comunitat Valencia (Red MUFFET, 15 parcelas, año 2013) y en Murcia (Red ESFP, 20 parcelas, años 2008-2010) permitieron el estudio de la comunidad de insectos relacionada con M. galloprovincialis. Cada una de las parcelas contaba con una trampa cebada con atrayentes y una estación meteorológica. El registro de más de 250 especies de coleópteros saproxílicos demostró el potencial que tiene el empleo de redes de trampas vigía para la detección temprana de organismos exóticos, además de permitir la caracterización y evaluación de las comunidades de entomofauna útil, representando una de las mejores herramientas de la gestión integrada de plagas. En este caso, la comunidad de saproxílicos estudiada mostró ser muy homogénea respecto a la variación ambiental de las zonas de muestreo, y que pese a las pequeñas variaciones entre las comunidades de los diferentes ecosistemas, el rol que M. galloprovincialis desempeña en ellas a lo largo de todo el gradiente estudiado es el mismo. Con todo, el análisis mediante redes de interacción mostró su relevancia ecológica al actuar de conector entre los diferentes niveles tróficos. Por último, un total de 12 experimentos de marcaje-liberación-recaptura desarrollados entre 2009 y 2012 en Castellón, Teruel, Valencia y Murcia permitieron evaluar el comportamiento dispersivo de M. galloprovincialis. Las detecciones mediante trampas cebadas de los insectos liberados se dieron por lo menos 8 días después de la emergencia. La abundancia de población pareció relacionada con la continuidad, la naturalización de la masa, y con la afección previa de incendios. La dispersión no estuvo influida por la dirección ni la intensidad de los vientos dominantes. La abundancia de material hospedante (en lo referente a las variables de masa y a los índices de competencia) influyó en la captura del insecto en paisajes fragmentados, aunque la ubicación de las trampas optimizó el número de capturas cuando se ubicaron en el límite de la masa y en zonas visibles. Por último también se constató que M. galloprovincialis posee suficiente capacidad de dispersión como para recorrer hasta 1500 m/día, llegando a alcanzar distancias máximas de 13600m o de 22100 m. ABSTRACT The detection and expansion of the Pine Wilt Desease (PWD), caused by Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Nematoda; Aphelenchoididae), Pine Wood Nematode (PWN), in southwestern Europe since 1999, has triggered off the study of the phenology and the dispersion of its unique vector in the continent, Monochamus galloprovincialis (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae). The analysis of 12 emergence series between 2010 and 2014 registered in Palencia, Teruel and Valencia (Spain), registered from field colonized material collected at several locations of the Iberian Peninsula, showed a high variability in the emergence phenology of M. galloprovincialis. In addition, these patterns showed a very acute thermal divergence regarding a development model fitted earlier in Portugal. Such model forecasted the emergence of 50% of M. galloprovincialis individuals in the Setúbal Peninsula (Portugal) when an average of 822 degree-days (DD) were reached, based on the accumulation of heat from the 1st of March until emergence and lower and upper thresholds of 12.2 ºC and 33,5 °C respectively. In our results, all analyzed series needed less than 822 DD to complete the 50% of the emergence. Also, emergency occurred earlier in the hottest regions, while it was delayed in more temperate areas. Beyond the possible variability between local populations, the difference in the heat accumulation during the fall season may have affected the degree of maturation of overwintering larvae, and subsequently, the temporal pattern of M. galloprovincialis emergences. Therefore these results suggest the need to differentiate local management strategies for the PWN vector, depending on the location, and the climatic variables of each region. Finally, protandrous emergence patterns were observed for M. galloprovincialis in most of the studied data-sets. Regarding the flight phenology of M. galloprovincialis, a total of 8 trapping experiments were carried out in different regions of the Iberian Peninsula (Castellón, Teruel, Segovia and Alicante) between 2010 and 2015. The use of commercial lures and traps allowed monitoring of the flight period of M. galloprovincialis. The analyses of such curves, helped confirming different aspects. First, a decline in the number of catches and a shortening of the flight period was observed as the altitude increased. Flight period was recorded to start in May / June when the daily average temperature went over 14 ° C. A significant influence of high temperatures on the decrease of catches in the summer was found in many occasions, which frequently lead to a bimodal profile of the flight curves in warm areas. The evolution of sex ratio along the flight period shows a greater capture of females at the beginning of the period, and of males at the end. In addition, the circadian response of M. galloprovincialis to lured traps was described for the first time, concluding that the insect is diurnal and that such response is linked to high temperatures. Two networks of systematic sampling of saproxylic insects were installed in the Region of Valencia (Red MUFFET, 15 plots, 2013) and Murcia (Red ICPF, 20 plots, 2008-2010). These networks, intended to serve the double purpose of early-detection and long term monitoring of the saproxylic beetle assemblies, allowed the study of insect communities related to M. galloprovincialis. Each of the plots had a trap baited with attractants and a weather station. The registration of almost 300 species of saproxylic beetles demonstrated the potential use of such trapping networks for the early detection of exotic organisms, while at the same time allows the characterization and evaluation of useful entomological fauna communities, representing one of the best tools for the integrated pest management. In this particular case, the studied community of saproxylic beetles was very homogeneous with respect to environmental variation of the sampling areas, and despite small variations between communities of different ecosystems, the role that M. galloprovincialis apparently plays in them across the studied gradient seems to be the same. However, the analysis through food-webs showed the ecological significance of M. galloprovincialis as a connector between different trophic levels. Finally, 12 mark-release-recapture experiments were carried out between 2009 and 2012 in Castellón, Teruel, Valencia and Murcia (Spain) with the aim to describe the dispersive behavior of M. galloprovincialis as well as the stand and landscape characteristics that could influence its abundance and dispersal. No insects younger than 8 days were caught in lured traps. Population abundance estimates from mark-release-recapture data, seemed related to forest continuity, naturalization, and to prior presence of forest fires. On the other hand, M. galloprovincialis dispersal was not found to be significantly influenced by the direction and intensity of prevailing winds. The abundance of host material, very related to stand characteristics and spacing indexes, influenced the insect abundance in fragmented landscapes. In addition, the location of the traps optimized the number of catches when they were placed in the edge of the forest stands and in visible positions. Finally it was also found that M. galloprovincialis is able to fly up to 1500 m / day, reaching maximum distances of up to 13600 m or 22100 m.

Polarimetric Response of Rice Fields at C-Band: Analysis and Phenology Retrieval

A set of ten RADARSAT-2 images acquired in fully polarimetric mode over a test site with rice fields in Seville, Spain, has been analyzed to extract the main features of the C-band radar backscatter as a function of rice phenology. After observing the evolutions versus phenology of different polarimetric observables and explaining their behavior in terms of scattering mechanisms present in the scene, a simple retrieval approach has been proposed. This algorithm is based on three polarimetric observables and provides estimates from a set of four relevant intervals of phenological stages. The validation against ground data, carried out at parcel level for a set of six stands and up to nine dates per stand, provides a 96% rate of coincidence. Moreover, an equivalent compact-pol retrieval algorithm has been also proposed and validated, providing the same performance at parcel level. In all cases, the inversion is carried out by exploiting a single satellite acquisition, without any other auxiliary information.

Crop Phenology Estimation Using a Multitemporal Model and a Kalman Filtering Strategy

In this letter, a new approach for crop phenology estimation with remote sensing is presented. The proposed methodology is aimed to exploit tools from a dynamical system context. From a temporal sequence of images, a geometrical model is derived, which allows us to translate this temporal domain into the estimation problem. The evolution model in state space is obtained through dimensional reduction by a principal component analysis, defining the state variables, of the observations. Then, estimation is achieved by combining the generated model with actual samples in an optimal way using a Kalman filter. As a proof of concept, an example with results obtained with this approach over rice fields by exploiting stacks of TerraSAR-X dual polarization images is shown.

Seasonal mean air temperatures and ice phenology characteristics of Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake (2002-2009)

Time series of brightness temperatures (T(B)) from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) are examined to determine ice phenology variables on the two largest lakes of northern Canada: Great Bear Lake (GBL) and Great Slave Lake (GSL). T(B) measurements from the 18.7, 23.8, 36.5, and 89.0 GHz channels (H- and V- polarization) are compared to assess their potential for detecting freeze-onset/melt-onset and ice-on/ice-off dates on both lakes. The 18.7 GHz (H-pol) channel is found to be the most suitable for estimating these ice dates as well as the duration of the ice cover and ice-free seasons. A new algorithm is proposed using this channel and applied to map all ice phenology variables on GBL and GSL over seven ice seasons (2002-2009). Analysis of the spatio-temporal patterns of each variable at the pixel level reveals that: (1) both freeze-onset and ice-on dates occur on average about one week earlier on GBL than on GSL (Day of Year (DY) 318 and 333 for GBL; DY 328 and 343 for GSL); (2) the freeze-up process or freeze duration (freeze-onset to ice-on) takes a slightly longer amount of time on GBL than on GSL (about 1 week on average); (3) melt-onset and ice-off dates occur on average one week and approximately four weeks later, respectively, on GBL (DY 143 and 183 for GBL; DY 135 and 157 for GSL); (4) the break-up process or melt duration (melt-onset to ice-off) lasts on average about three weeks longer on GBL; and (5) ice cover duration estimated from each individual pixel is on average about three weeks longer on GBL compared to its more southern counterpart, GSL. A comparison of dates for several ice phenology variables derived from other satellite remote sensing products (e.g. NOAA Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS), QuikSCAT, and Canadian Ice Service Database) show that, despite its relatively coarse spatial resolution, AMSR-E 18.7 GHz provides a viable means for monitoring of ice phenology on large northern lakes.

Local impacts of global change: shifting range limits, advancing phenology, and communicating research

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Biology and phenology of the eriophyid mite, Floracarus perrepae, on its native host in Australia, Old World climbing fern, Lygodium microphyllum

The biology and phenology of the eriophyid mite, Floracarus perrepae Knihinicki and Boczek,a potential biological control agent of Lygodium microphyllum (Cav.) R. Br., was studied in its native range - Queensland, Australia. F. perrepae forms leaf roll galls oil tile subpinnae of L. microphyllum. It has a simple biology, with females and males produced throughout the year. Tile Population was female biased at 10.5 to 1. The immature development time was 8.9 ± 0.1 and 7.0 ± 0.1 days; adult longevity was 30.6 ± 1.6 and 19.4 ± 1.2 days and mean fecundity per female was 54.5 ± 3.2 and 38.5 ± 1.6 eggs at 21 and 26 ° C, all respectively. Field studies showed that tile mite was active year round, with populations peaking when temperatures were cool and soil moisture levels were highest. Two species of predatory mites, Tarsonemus sp. and a species of Tydeidae, along with the pathogen Hirsutella thompsonii, had significant effects oil all life stages of F. perrepae. Despite high levels of predators and the pathogen, F. perrepae caused consistent damage to L. microphyllum at all the field sites over the entire 2 years of the study.

Adaptive responses of wild mungbean (Vigna radiata ssp sublobata) to photo-thermal environment. I. Phenology

The phenology of 11 diverse accessions of wild mungbean was observed under natural and artificial photoperiod - temperature conditions, in order to examine whether genotypic differences might be attributed to adaptive responses to photo-thermal conditions. There was large variation in phenological response among accessions and across environments, much of which was due to differences in the duration of the pre-flowering phase. Accessions that flowered earlier tended to flower for longer, apart from 2 earlier flowering, inland Australian lines that were also earlier maturing. The patterns of response in time from sowing to flowering over environment were consistent with quantitative short-day photoperiodic adaptation, a conclusion supported by the effects of artificial day-length extension and by 'goodness of fit' of the observed responses to standard models relating rate of development to photoperiod and temperature. The fitted models indicated that rate of development towards flowering was hastened by warmer temperatures, and delayed by longer day lengths, with differential sensitivity between accessions to both factors. The models also suggested that photoperiod was more important for accessions collected closer to the equator, which were generally later flowering as a consequence. Conversely, temperature was relatively more important in lines from higher latitudes. Modelling also suggested that the period from first flowering to maturity was sensitive to photoperiod and temperature. Again, longer days appeared to prolong growth and delay maturity. However, cooler temperatures accelerated rather than slowed maturity, by suppressing further vegetative growth. The variation observed indicated that there is considerable scope for using the wild population to broaden the adaptation of cultivated mungbean. In particular, the unusual response of a late-flowering, photoperiod-insensitive accession warrants further study to establish whether the wild population contains a unique 'long juvenile' trait analogous to that being used for improving phenological adaptation in soybean.

Ecological factors associated with the breeding and migratory phenology of high-latitude breeding western sandpipers

Environmental conditions influence the breeding and migratory patterns of many avian species and may have particularly dramatic effects on long-distance migrants that breed at northern latitudes. Environment, however, is only one of the ecological variables affecting avian phenology, and recent work shows that migration tactics may be strongly affected by changes in predator populations. We used long-term data from 1978 to 2000 to examine the interactions between snowmelt in western Alaska in relation to the breeding or migration phenologies of small shorebirds and their raptor predators. Although the sandpipers' time of arrival at Alaskan breeding sites corresponded with mean snowmelt, late snowmelts did delay breeding. These delays, however, did not persist to southward migration through British Columbia, likely due to the birds' ability to compensate for variance in the length of the breeding season. Raptor phenology at an early stopover site in British Columbia was strongly related to snowmelt, so that in years of early snowmelt falcons appeared earlier during the sandpipers' southbound migration. These differential effects indicate that earlier snowmelt due to climate change may alter the ecological dynamics of the predator-prey system.

Spring Phenology of Butterflies : The role of seasonal variation in life-cycle regulation

Animals and plants in temperate regions must adapt their life cycle to pronounced seasonal variation. The research effort that has gone into studying these cyclical life history events, or phenological traits, has increased greatly in recent decades. As phenological traits are often correlated to temperature, they are relevant to study in terms of understanding the effect of short term environmental variation as well as long term climate change. Because of this, changes in phenology are the most obvious and among the most commonly reported responses to climate change. Moreover, phenological traits are important for fitness as they determine the biotic and abiotic environment an individual encounters. Fine-tuning of phenology allows for synchronisation at a local scale to mates, food resources and appropriate weather conditions. On a between-population scale, variation in phenology may reflect regional variation in climate. Such differences can not only give insights to life cycle adaptation, but also to how populations may respond to environmental change through time. This applies both on an ecological scale through phenotypic plasticity as well as an evolutionary scale through genetic adaptation. In this thesis I have used statistical and experimental methods to investigate both the larger geographical patterns as well as mechanisms of fine-tuning of phenology of several butterfly species. The main focus, however, is on the orange tip butterfly, Anthocharis cardamines, in Sweden and the United Kingdom. I show a contrasting effect of spring temperature and winter condition on spring phenology for three out of the five studied butterfly species. For A. cardamines there are population differences in traits responding to these environmental factors between and within Sweden and the UK that suggest adaptation to local environmental conditions. All populations show a strong negative plastic relationship between spring temperature and spring phenology, while the opposite is true for winter cold duration. Spring phenology is shifted earlier with increasing cold duration. The environmental variables show correlations, for example, during a warm year a short winter delays phenology while a warm spring speeds phenology up. Correlations between the environmental variables also occur through space, as the locations that have long winters also have cold springs. The combined effects of these two environmental variables cause a complex geographical pattern of phenology across the UK and Sweden. When predicting phenology with future climate change or interpreting larger geographical patterns one must therefore have a good enough understanding of how the phenology is controlled and take the relevant environmental factors in to account. In terms of the effect of phenological change, it should be discussed with regards to change in life cycle timing among interacting species. For example, the phenology of the host plants is important for A. cardamines fitness, and it is also the main determining factor for oviposition. In summary, this thesis shows that the broad geographical pattern of phenology of the butterflies is formed by counteracting environmental variables, but that there also are significant population differences that enable fine-tuning of phenology according to the seasonal progression and variation at the local scale.

Climatic effects on the phenology of geophytes

Nowadays, the scientific and social significance of the research of climatic effects has become outstanding. In order to be able to predict the ecological effects of the global climate change, it is necessary to study monitoring databases of the past and explore connections. For the case study mentioned in the title, historical weather data series from the Hungarian Meteorological Service and Szaniszló Priszter’s monitoring data on the phenology of geophytes have been used. These data describe on which days the observed geophytes budded, were blooming and withered. In our research we have found that the classification of the observed years according to phenological events and the classification of those according to the frequency distribution of meteorological parameters show similar patterns, and the one variable group is suitable for explaining the pattern shown by the other one. Furthermore, our important result is that the dates of all three observed phenophases correlate significantly with the average of the daily temperature fluctuation in the given period. The second most often significant parameter is the number of frosty days, this also seem to be determinant for all phenophases. Usual approaches based on the temperature sum and the average temperature don’t seem to be really important in this respect. According to the results of the research, it has turned out that the phenology of geophytes can be well modelled with the linear combination of suitable meteorological parameters

Climate change and plankton phenology in freshwater: current trends and future commitments

A solid body of empirical, experimental and theoretical evidence accumulated over recent years indicated that freshwater plankton experienced advance in phenology in response to climate change. Despite rapidly growing evidence for phenological changes, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of how climate change alters plankton phenology in freshwater. To overcome current limitations, we need to shed some light on trends and constraints in current research. The goal of this study is to identify current trends and gaps based on analysis of selected papers, by the help of which we can facilitate further advance in the field. We searched the literature for plankton phenology and confined our search to studies where climate change has been proposed to alter plankton phenology and rates of changes were quantified. We did not restrict our search for empirical ontributions; experimental and theoretical studies were considered as well. In the following we discuss the spatio-temporal setting of selected studies, contributions of different taxonomic groups, emerging methodological constraints, measures of phenological trends; and finally give a list of recommendations on how to improve our understanding in the field. The majority of studies were confined to deep lakes with a skewed geographical distribution toward Central Europe, where scientists have long been engaged in limnology. Despite these findings, recent studies suggest that plankton in running waters may experience change in phenology with similar magnitude. Average rate of advancement in phenology of freshwater plankton exceeded those of the marine plankton and the global average. Increasing study duration was not coupled either with increasing contribution of discontinuous data or with increasing rates of phenological changes. Future studies may benefit from i) delivering longterm data across scientific and political boundaries; ii) extending study sites to broader geographical areas with a more explicit consideration of running waters; iii) applying plankton functional groups; iv) increasing the application of satellite data to quantify phytoplankton bloom phenology; v) extending analyses of time series beyond the spring period; vi) using various metrics to quantify variation in phenology; vii) combining empirical, experimental and theoretical approaches; and last but not least viii) paying more attention to emergence dynamics, nonresponding species and trophic mismatch.

Leaf morphology scales multi-annual trends in nutrient cycling and leaf, flower, and fruiting phenology among species in the sub-tropical hardwood forests of the northern Florida Keys

The subtropical hardwood forests of southern Florida are formed by 120 frost-sensitive, broadleaved angiosperm species that range throughout the Caribbean. Previous work on a series of small sized forest component patches of a 20 km2, forest preserve in northern Key Largo indicate that a shift in species composition was associated with a 100 year forest developmental sequence, and this shift was associated with an increasingly evergreen canopy. This document investigates the underlying differences of the biology of trees that live in this habitat, and is specifically focused on the impact of leaf morphology on changing nutrient cycling patterns. Measurements of the area, thickness, dry mass, nutrient content and longevity of several leaves from 3-4 individuals of ten species were conducted in combination with a two-year leaf litter collection and nutrient analysis to determine that species with thicker, denser leaves cycled scarce nutrients up to 2-3 times more efficiently than thin leaved tree species, and the leaf thickness/density index predicts role in forest development in a parallel direction as the index predicts nutrient cycling efficiency. A three year set of observations on the relative abundance of new leaves, flowers and fruits of the same tree species provides an opportunity to evaluate the consequences the leaf morphology/nutrient cycling/forest development relationship to forest habitat quality. Results of the three documents support a mechanistic link between forest development and nutrient cycling, and suggests that older forests are likely to be better habitats based on the availability of valuable forest products like new leaves, flowers, and fruits throughout the year.