Editorial: Plant phenology shifts and their ecological and climatic consequences

Abstract

Plant phenology shifts and their ecological and climatic consequencesClimate change is causing plant phenology to shift, with consequences for ecosystems and the Earth's climate.Over the last decades, the timing of many important phenological event has advanced in spring, such as leaf emergence and flowering, or been delayed in fall, such as leaf coloration and leaf fall (Cleland et al., 2007).The consequences of such phenological shifts are still largely unknown, but are hypothesized to have cascading effects on ecosystems (e.g.altering species interactions and the foodweb), carbon and water cycles and Earth' s climate (Piao et al., 2019).With this Research Topic, we aimed to synthesize and inspire innovative research in plant phenology to address research questions and challenges on the consequences of phenological shifts on ecosystem functioning and local hydrology.The articles presented here improve our understanding of the physiological mechanisms responsible for the current phenological changes in spring and fall and provide insight into some of the consequences of these changes on hydrological cycles and ecosystem functioning (Figure 1).In this special topic, four manuscripts investigate the phenological responses to climate change among and within species, focusing on the main climatic drivers of such changes.Specifically, in a theoretical article based on temperature sums required to trigger vegetation onset, Chu et al. demonstrated that early-flushing species, typically grasses and early-growing shrubs, would exhibit larger phenological shifts but accumulate fewer forcing gains in response to a warmer climate than late-flushing species, such as tree species.Malyshev et al. focused on variation of budburst timing and dormancy depth between 146 individual European beech trees monitored over 12 years.They found a high and systematic variation found in budburst timing among individuals and mainly attributed it to differences in their dormancy depth during winter, with earlier-flushing trees being less dormant than late-flushing trees in mid-winter.Hu et al.