TY  - JOUR
A1  - Cornelius, Christine
A1  - Leingärtner, Annette
A1  - Hoiss, Bernhard
A1  - Krauss, Jochen
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
A1  - Menzel, Annette
T1  - Phenological response of grassland species to manipulative snowmelt and drought along an altitudinal gradient
JF  - Journal of Experimental Botany
N2  - Plant communities in the European Alps are assumed to be highly affected by climate change, as the temperature rise in this region is above the global average. It is predicted that higher temperatures will lead to advanced snowmelt dates and that the number of extreme weather events will increase. The aims of this study were to determine the impacts of extreme climatic events on flower phenology and to assess whether those impacts differed between lower and higher altitudes. In 2010, an experiment simulating advanced and delayed snowmelt as well as a drought event was conducted along an altitudinal transect approximately every 250 m (600–2000 m above sea level) in the Berchtesgaden National Park, Germany. The study showed that flower phenology was strongly affected by altitude; however, there were few effects of the manipulative treatments on flowering. The effects of advanced snowmelt were significantly greater at higher than at lower sites, but no significant difference was found between both altitudinal bands for the other treatments. The response of flower phenology to temperature declined through the season and the length of flowering duration was not significantly influenced by treatments. The stronger effect of advanced snowmelt at higher altitudes may be a response to differences in treatment intensity across the gradient. Consequently, shifts in the date of snowmelt due to global warming may affect species more at higher than at lower altitudes, as changes may be more pronounced at higher altitudes. These data indicate a rather low risk of drought events on flowering phenology in the Bavarian Alps.
KW  - flowering
KW  - advanced
KW  - snowmelt
KW  - Alps
KW  - BBCH
KW  - climate change
KW  - delayed snowmelt
Y1  - 2013
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-126888
VL  - 64
IS  - 1
ER  -