Mediterranean plants are flowering earlier because of climate change, study published in Functional Ecology reveals

Por: Gabriela Andrietta

A recent study published in the journal Functional Ecology reveals that plants in Mediterranean regions are significantly altering their flowering period in response to climate change — especially rising temperatures. The article, titled “Functional traits predict changes in floral phenology under climate change in a highly diverse Mediterranean community,” is written by researchers Daniel Pareja-Bonilla, Pedro Luis Ortiz, and Montserrat Arista, from the Department of Plant Biology and Ecology at the Faculty of Biology at the University of Seville, Spain, and Patrícia Morellato, a professor at the Department of Biodiversity at Unesp in Rio Claro. The research investigated 269 species from a highly diverse community over 35 years and revealed that almost 90% of them began to flower, on average, 19 days earlier. The analyses showed that these changes are not random: they are directly related to the plants’ functional traits—such as height, leaf size, specific leaf area (SLA), and flower characteristics. Woody, shorter species with broad leaves and large flowers tend to start flowering earlier than usual. Species that flower in winter, on the other hand, were more sensitive to climate change than those that flower in summer.

“Plants are flowering earlier and earlier each year in response to rising temperatures,” explains researcher Daniel Pareja-Bonilla, one of the authors of the study. “Almost 90% of species now flower at least 19 days earlier than they did in the 1980s—that’s almost a day earlier every two years. This is a very accelerated rate, especially when compared to other regions of the world.”

Furthermore, Daniel highlights that the results surprised the team: “The functional traits that explain these changes in the Mediterranean were different from those already reported in studies from other regions. We saw, for example, that reproductive characteristics such as investment in flowers, and the time of year in which the plant flowers, had a great influence.”

The research raises an alert about the impact of rising temperatures on the ecological dynamics of Mediterranean forests and highlights the importance of understanding how each species responds to environmental changes based on its own characteristics.

Read the full article at: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2435.70062

1) Dianthus broteri/ 2)  Myrtus communis/ 3) Salvia rosmarinus/ 4)  Centaurea exarata/ 5)Phlomis purpurea/ 6) Lysimachia monelli 7)Myrtus communis

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