Departamento de Botânica, Laboratório de Fenologia, Grupo de Fenologia e Dispersão de Sementes, UNESP - Univ Estadual Paulista, 13.506-900, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil.
Int J Biometeorol. 2011 Nov;55(6):843-54. doi: 10.1007/s00484-011-0482-x. Epub 2011 Aug 9.
The diversity of tropical forest plant phenology has called the attention of researchers for a long time. We continue investigating the factors that drive phenological diversity on a wide scale, but we are unaware of the variation of plant reproductive phenology at a fine spatial scale despite the high spatial variation in species composition and abundance in tropical rainforests. We addressed fine scale variability by investigating the reproductive phenology of three contiguous vegetations across the Atlantic rainforest coastal plain in Southeastern Brazil. We asked whether the vegetations differed in composition and abundance of species, the microenvironmental conditions and the reproductive phenology, and how their phenology is related to regional and local microenvironmental factors. The study was conducted from September 2007 to August 2009 at three contiguous sites: (1) seashore dominated by scrub vegetation, (2) intermediary covered by restinga forest and (3) foothills covered by restinga pre-montane transitional forest. We conducted the microenvironmental, plant and phenological survey within 30 transects of 25 m × 4 m (10 per site). We detected significant differences in floristic, microenvironment and reproductive phenology among the three vegetations. The microenvironment determines the spatial diversity observed in the structure and composition of the flora, which in turn determines the distinctive flowering and fruiting peaks of each vegetation (phenological diversity). There was an exchange of species providing flowers and fruits across the vegetation complex. We conclude that plant reproductive patterns as described in most phenological studies (without concern about the microenvironmental variation) may conceal the fine scale temporal phenological diversity of highly diverse tropical vegetation. This phenological diversity should be taken into account when generating sensor-derived phenologies and when trying to understand tropical vegetation responses to environmental changes.
热带森林植物物候的多样性长期以来一直引起研究人员的关注。我们继续广泛研究驱动物候多样性的因素，但尽管热带雨林中物种组成和丰度存在高度的空间变化，我们仍不知道植物繁殖物候在精细空间尺度上的变化。我们通过调查巴西东南部大西洋雨林沿海平原三个连续植被的繁殖物候来解决精细尺度的可变性。我们询问植被在物种组成和丰度、微环境条件和繁殖物候方面是否存在差异，以及它们的物候如何与区域和局部微环境因素相关。这项研究于 2007 年 9 月至 2009 年 8 月在三个连续地点进行：（1）以灌木植被为主的海滨，（2）由休息林覆盖的中间地带，（3）由休息林过渡到前山地森林覆盖的山麓。我们在 30 个 25 m×4 m（每个地点 10 个）的样带内进行了微环境、植物和物候调查。我们发现三个植被之间在植物区系、微环境和繁殖物候方面存在显著差异。微环境决定了植物区系结构和组成中观察到的空间多样性，进而决定了每个植被的独特开花和结果高峰期（物候多样性）。不同植被之间存在着物种的交换，提供了花朵和果实。我们的结论是，在大多数物候研究中描述的植物繁殖模式（不关注微环境变化）可能掩盖了高度多样化的热带植被的精细时间物候多样性。在生成传感器衍生的物候和试图理解热带植被对环境变化的响应时，应该考虑这种物候多样性。
