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Climate changes affecting biotic interactions, phenology, and reproductive success in a savanna community over a 10-year period

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Abstract

Climatic parameters are able to influence the timing of phenological events affecting the degree of synchrony among plant species, their interactions, and reproductive success. Shrubs of Malpighiaceae family in the Brazilian Tropical Savanna present sequential flowering phenology. We verified variations in climatic factors (temperature and precipitation) over a period of 10 years (2005–2014) and correlated them with the onset of flowering of four of these Malpighiaceae species. Furthermore, we tested whether the phenological synchronization among species has changed over time affecting the herbivory and fruit set. Herbivory and fruit production were recorded during three reproductive seasons (2008/2009, 2011/2012, 2013/2014). We developed a mathematical model to estimate the flower and fruit production in response to phenological changes for the next 5 years. Results show that climatic factors changed, influencing the onset of species flowering. The degree of overlap among species also changed and the effects on species interactions were species specific. The mathematical model successfully presented a tendency on flower and fruit production contributing to the predictions of the outcomes in response to phenological changes. We confirm the effects of climate changes on plant phenological events and the importance of feature plasticity for better performance of species.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the three anonymous reviewers for reviewing the manuscript. We also thank CNPq and FAPEMIG for funding this research (KDC/HMTS/VTSDC) and FAPEMIG for awarding fellowships to AAV.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Ecologia Comportamental e Interações, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, CEP 38400-920, Brazil

    Andréa Andrade Vilela, Helena Maura Torezan-Silingardi & Kleber Del-Claro

  2. Laboratório de Mecânica de Estruturas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, CEP 38400-920, Brazil

    Vergilio Torezan Silingardi Del Claro

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  1. Andréa Andrade Vilela
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  2. Vergilio Torezan Silingardi Del Claro
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  4. Kleber Del-Claro
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Correspondence to Kleber Del-Claro.

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Supplementary material 1 (AVI 57599 kb)

AVI movie produced in CSVM program (Claro 2015) showing the influence of climatic parameters in real field data of leaf, bud, flower, and fruit production over 3 years to the Brazilian savanna Malpighiaceae: Banisteriopsis laevifolia, Peixotoa tomentosa, Banisteriopsis malifolia and Banisteriopsis campestris

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Vilela, A.A., Del Claro, V.T.S., Torezan-Silingardi, H.M. et al. Climate changes affecting biotic interactions, phenology, and reproductive success in a savanna community over a 10-year period. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 12, 215–227 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-017-9572-y

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