Phenological shifts in wild-growing plants and wild animal phenophases are well documented at many European sites. Less is known about phenological shifts in agricultural plants and how wild ecosystem phenology interacts with crop phenology. Here, we present long-term phenological observations (1961-2021) from the Czech Republic for wild plants and agricultural crops and how the timing of phenophases differs from each other. The phenology of wild-growing plants was observed at various experimental sites with no agriculture or forestry management within the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute observations. The phenological data of the crops were collected from small experimental plots at the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture. The data clearly show a tendency to shift to earlier times during the observation period. The data also show some asynchrony in phenological shifts. Compared with wild plants, agricultural crops showed more expressive shifts to the start of the season. Phenological trends for crop plants (Triticum aestivum) showed accelerated shifts of 4.1 and 5.1 days per decade at low and middle altitudes, respectively; on the other hand, the average phenological shift for wild plants showed smaller shifts of 2.7 and 2.9 days per decade at low and middle altitudes, respectively. The phenophase ´heading´ of T. aestivum showed the highest correlation with maximum temperatures (r = 0.9), followed by wild species (with r = 0.7-0.8) and two remaining phenophases of T. aestivum jointing and ripening (with r = 0.7 and 0.6). To better understand the impacts of climate on phenological changes, it is optimal to evaluate natural and unaffected plant responses in wild species since the phenology of field crops is most probably influenced not only by climate but also by agricultural management.

• Keywords
• asynchrony, crop plants, phenology, trends, wild plants,
• MeSH
• Ecosystem MeSH
• Climate Change * MeSH
• Altitude MeSH
• Triticum growth & development   MeSH
• Seasons MeSH
• Crops, Agricultural * growth & development   MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic MeSH

Whereas temporal variability of plant phenology in response to climate change has already been well studied, the spatial variability of phenology is not well understood. Given that phenological shifts may affect biotic interactions, there is a need to investigate how the variability in environmental factors relates to the spatial variability in herbaceous species' phenology by at the same time considering their functional traits to predict their general and species-specific responses to future climate change. In this project, we analysed phenology records of 148 herbaceous species, which were observed for a single year by the PhenObs network in 15 botanical gardens. For each species, we characterised the spatial variability in six different phenological stages across gardens. We used boosted regression trees to link these variabilities in phenology to the variability in environmental parameters (temperature, latitude and local habitat conditions) as well as species traits (seed mass, vegetative height, specific leaf area and temporal niche) hypothesised to be related to phenology variability. We found that spatial variability in the phenology of herbaceous species was mainly driven by the variability in temperature but also photoperiod was an important driving factor for some phenological stages. In addition, we found that early-flowering and less competitive species characterised by small specific leaf area and vegetative height were more variable in their phenology. Our findings contribute to the field of phenology by showing that besides temperature, photoperiod and functional traits are important to be included when spatial variability of herbaceous species is investigated.

• Keywords
• Botanical garden, Climate change, Flowering onset, Functional traits, PhenObs, Spatial variability,
• MeSH
• Phenotype MeSH
• Photoperiod * MeSH
• Climate Change MeSH
• Plant Leaves * physiology   MeSH
• Seasons MeSH
• Plants MeSH
• Temperature MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

The high rate of climate change may soon expose plants to conditions beyond their adaptation limits. Clonal plants might be particularly affected due to limited genotypic diversity of their populations, potentially decreasing their adaptability. We therefore tested the ability of a widely distributed predominantly clonally reproducing herb (Fragaria vesca) to cope with periods of drought and flooding in climatic conditions predicted to occur at the end of the twenty-first century, i.e. on average 4 °C warmer and with twice the concentration of CO2 in the air (800 ppm) than the current state. We found that F. vesca can phenotypically adjust to future climatic conditions, although its drought resistance may be reduced. Increased temperature and CO2 levels in the air had a far greater effect on growth, phenology, reproduction, and gene expression than the temperature increase itself, and promoted resistance of F. vesca to repeated flooding periods. Higher temperature promoted clonal over sexual reproduction, and increased temperature and CO2 concentration in the air triggered change in expression of genes controlling the level of self-pollination. We conclude that F. vesca can acclimatise to predicted climate change, but the increased ratio of clonal to sexual reproduction and the alteration of genes involved in the self-(in)compatibility system may be associated with reduced genotypic diversity of its populations, which may negatively impact its ability to genetically adapt to novel climate in the long-term.

• MeSH
• Acclimatization MeSH
• Atmosphere MeSH
• Fever MeSH
• Fragaria * MeSH
• Carbon Dioxide MeSH
• Temperature MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Carbon Dioxide MeSH