Format: ORAL

Skylar Graves, Gladiana Spitz, Brett Melbourne, Nancy Emory, Patrick Sweeny, Julian Resasco, Erin Manzitto-Tripp

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA COLO Herbarium, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Shifts in flowering phenology can have cascade effects across entire ecosystems and can be indicators of more severe climate change effects. Large scale, multi-taxon studies investigating flowering phenology have been limited to non-tropical latitudes. This study analyzes changes in flowering times at 20 localities across the global tropics. I have found that from 1850 to 2021, flowering times have shifted significantly at all locations, on average 97.6 days across all sites. This ranged from 55.5 days shifted at Las Cruces Research Station in Costa Rica to 109.9 days shifted at Korup National Park, Cameroon. The Neotropics have undergone an average of 80.9 days shifted, the Afrotropics an average of 91.9 days shifted, and Southeast Asia an average of 102.6 days shifted. These shifts could be indicative of greater ecosystem-wide changes. A changing of flowering time can be an indicator for larger impacts of climate change, however it is important to take duration of flowering period into account when analyzing the impact the shift in flowering may cause.