Menon Devika, Behera Debabrata, Ayyappan Narayanan
Department of Ecology, French Institute of Pondicherry, Puducherry, 605001, India.
Centre for Doctoral Studies, Directorate of Research, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, 576104, India.
Int J Biometeorol. 2025 Jan;69(1):177-193. doi: 10.1007/s00484-024-02802-6. Epub 2024 Oct 21.
Understanding phenological responses of tropical forest plant communities is crucial for identifying climate-induced changes in ecosystem dynamics. Monitoring phenology across diverse species in natural habitats provides cost-effective insights for conserving both species and forests. We studied tree phenology in a lowland evergreen dipterocarp forest in the Western Ghats, India. About 719 tree individuals representing 95 species were monitored for their vegetative and reproductive phenology from April 2021 to September 2023. Circular statistics detected seasonality in phenological events and Generalized Linear Mixed Modelling (GLMM) identified influence of climate variables on the phenological responses of the tree community. We also assessed how the activity and intensity of phenophases vary over the study period. Our results showed that leaf flushing and flowering peaked during the dry season, with mass flowering observed in two dominant dipterocarps. Fruit production peaked before the monsoon. We also observed diversity in vegetative and reproductive phenodynamics across species groups (forest strata, sexual system, and seed size). Leaf flushing was positively correlated with maximum relative humidity and negatively correlated with maximum temperature and the number of rainy days. Flowering had negative correlations with maximum relative humidity, rainfall days, and maximum temperature but showed a positive correlation with minimum temperature. Fruiting was positively correlated with maximum temperature and negatively correlated with rainy days. This detailed phenological information provides critical knowledge on resource availability and insights into how climate and seasonal changes affect plant growth cycles thereby aiding reforestation and biodiversity conservation strategies in vulnerable forest areas.
了解热带森林植物群落的物候响应对于识别气候引起的生态系统动态变化至关重要。监测自然栖息地中不同物种的物候情况为保护物种和森林提供了具有成本效益的见解。我们研究了印度西高止山脉低地常绿龙脑香林的树木物候。从2021年4月到2023年9月，对代表95个物种的约719棵树木个体的营养和生殖物候进行了监测。循环统计检测到物候事件的季节性，广义线性混合模型（GLMM）确定了气候变量对树木群落物候响应的影响。我们还评估了物候阶段的活动和强度在研究期间如何变化。我们的结果表明，叶片萌发和开花在旱季达到峰值，在两种优势龙脑香中观察到大量开花。果实产量在季风来临前达到峰值。我们还观察到不同物种组（森林层次、性系统和种子大小）在营养和生殖物候动态方面存在差异。叶片萌发与最大相对湿度呈正相关，与最高温度和降雨天数呈负相关。开花与最大相对湿度、降雨天数和最高温度呈负相关，但与最低温度呈正相关。结果实与最高温度呈正相关，与降雨天数呈负相关。这些详细的物候信息提供了关于资源可用性的关键知识，并深入了解气候和季节变化如何影响植物生长周期，从而有助于脆弱森林地区的重新造林和生物多样性保护策略。
