Phenology of indigenous and alien vascular flowering plants on sub-Antarctic Marion Island

Species' seasonal behaviour is of paramount importance in understanding community functioning and dynamics. Recently, plant phenology has further gained significance as a reliable indicator of climate change impacts. Despite the importance of understanding plant dynamics, there are relatively f...

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Main Author: Mukhadi, Fulufhelo Licken
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Zenodo 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4740283
https://zenodo.org/record/4740283
id ftdatacite:10.5281/zenodo.4740283
record_format openpolar
spelling ftdatacite:10.5281/zenodo.4740283 2023-05-15T14:04:46+02:00 Phenology of indigenous and alien vascular flowering plants on sub-Antarctic Marion Island Mukhadi, Fulufhelo Licken 2014 https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4740283 https://zenodo.org/record/4740283 en eng Zenodo https://zenodo.org/communities/cib https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4740282 https://zenodo.org/communities/cib Embargoed Access Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess CC-BY indigenous alien vascular flowering plants Marion Island Masters Other CreativeWork article 2014 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4740283 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4740282 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z Species' seasonal behaviour is of paramount importance in understanding community functioning and dynamics. Recently, plant phenology has further gained significance as a reliable indicator of climate change impacts. Despite the importance of understanding plant dynamics, there are relatively few plant phenological records for the sub-Antarctic region, and where records exist they are often not extensive. Sub-Antarctic Marion Island, typical of Southern Ocean Islands, offers a useful setting for addressing these knowledge gaps. This study documented the vegetative and reproductive phenologies (or aggregate phenological patterns) of twelve indigenous and three alien vascular plant species on the island. The phenological differences among the species and distinct seasonal groupings (e.g. early, intermediate and late species) were examined. I also investigated the phenological differences among the indigenous and alien plant species. Furthermore, the onset of selected reproductive phenophases from the current records was compared with historical records for determining the extent of climate change-related alterations in phenology. Phenological data were collected fortnightly on five, 5 m x 5 m permanent plots per species (except for a few species) for a full growing season. Thus the sample size is n = 5 for all plant species except for Crassula moschata (n = 4), Juncus effusus (n=4) and Rumex acetosella (n=1). Sites of the same species were separated by at least 500 m except for the alien plant, Juncus effusus, where all four known populations were selected despite two of these populations being < 500 m apart. This study indicated that Marion Island plants grow throughout the year with no major peaks except in Azorella selago and Acaena magellanica which showed winter dormancy. However, reproduction in most plant species predominately occurred in spring and summer months. Pringlea antiscorbutica and Poa cookii were the first two species to set flower buds in September while most species dispersed their seeds in summer except for Agrostis magellanica and Crassula moschata which dispersed in early autumn. Distinct from most temperate systems, the reproductive seasonality displayed by Marion Island plant species is explained more by daylength than by temperature, perhaps due to the region's typical thermal aseasonality. Interestingly, many cooccurring species and/or clades across the Falkland, Kerguelen, Macquarie and South Georgia Islands also showed similar flowering onset date to the Marion Island plants, further confirming their daylength sensitivity. However... : Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Botany) Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Marion Island Southern Ocean DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Antarctic Southern Ocean Kerguelen
institution Open Polar
collection DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology)
op_collection_id ftdatacite
language English
topic indigenous
alien
vascular flowering plants
Marion Island
Masters
spellingShingle indigenous
alien
vascular flowering plants
Marion Island
Masters
Mukhadi, Fulufhelo Licken
Phenology of indigenous and alien vascular flowering plants on sub-Antarctic Marion Island
topic_facet indigenous
alien
vascular flowering plants
Marion Island
Masters
description Species' seasonal behaviour is of paramount importance in understanding community functioning and dynamics. Recently, plant phenology has further gained significance as a reliable indicator of climate change impacts. Despite the importance of understanding plant dynamics, there are relatively few plant phenological records for the sub-Antarctic region, and where records exist they are often not extensive. Sub-Antarctic Marion Island, typical of Southern Ocean Islands, offers a useful setting for addressing these knowledge gaps. This study documented the vegetative and reproductive phenologies (or aggregate phenological patterns) of twelve indigenous and three alien vascular plant species on the island. The phenological differences among the species and distinct seasonal groupings (e.g. early, intermediate and late species) were examined. I also investigated the phenological differences among the indigenous and alien plant species. Furthermore, the onset of selected reproductive phenophases from the current records was compared with historical records for determining the extent of climate change-related alterations in phenology. Phenological data were collected fortnightly on five, 5 m x 5 m permanent plots per species (except for a few species) for a full growing season. Thus the sample size is n = 5 for all plant species except for Crassula moschata (n = 4), Juncus effusus (n=4) and Rumex acetosella (n=1). Sites of the same species were separated by at least 500 m except for the alien plant, Juncus effusus, where all four known populations were selected despite two of these populations being < 500 m apart. This study indicated that Marion Island plants grow throughout the year with no major peaks except in Azorella selago and Acaena magellanica which showed winter dormancy. However, reproduction in most plant species predominately occurred in spring and summer months. Pringlea antiscorbutica and Poa cookii were the first two species to set flower buds in September while most species dispersed their seeds in summer except for Agrostis magellanica and Crassula moschata which dispersed in early autumn. Distinct from most temperate systems, the reproductive seasonality displayed by Marion Island plant species is explained more by daylength than by temperature, perhaps due to the region's typical thermal aseasonality. Interestingly, many cooccurring species and/or clades across the Falkland, Kerguelen, Macquarie and South Georgia Islands also showed similar flowering onset date to the Marion Island plants, further confirming their daylength sensitivity. However... : Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Botany)
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Mukhadi, Fulufhelo Licken
author_facet Mukhadi, Fulufhelo Licken
author_sort Mukhadi, Fulufhelo Licken
title Phenology of indigenous and alien vascular flowering plants on sub-Antarctic Marion Island
title_short Phenology of indigenous and alien vascular flowering plants on sub-Antarctic Marion Island
title_full Phenology of indigenous and alien vascular flowering plants on sub-Antarctic Marion Island
title_fullStr Phenology of indigenous and alien vascular flowering plants on sub-Antarctic Marion Island
title_full_unstemmed Phenology of indigenous and alien vascular flowering plants on sub-Antarctic Marion Island
title_sort phenology of indigenous and alien vascular flowering plants on sub-antarctic marion island
publisher Zenodo
publishDate 2014
url https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4740283
https://zenodo.org/record/4740283
geographic Antarctic
Southern Ocean
Kerguelen
geographic_facet Antarctic
Southern Ocean
Kerguelen
genre Antarc*
Antarctic
Marion Island
Southern Ocean
genre_facet Antarc*
Antarctic
Marion Island
Southern Ocean
op_relation https://zenodo.org/communities/cib
https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4740282
https://zenodo.org/communities/cib
op_rights Embargoed Access
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
cc-by-4.0
info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess
op_rightsnorm CC-BY
op_doi https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4740283
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4740282
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