The impact of climate variability and weather extremes on plant phenology and its implications on biodiversity

• Grant number: 22/07735-5
• Support Opportunities: Research Program on Global Climate Change - Thematic Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2023
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Agreement: National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
• Principal Investigator: Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato
• Grantee: Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato
• Principal researcher abroad: Yongshuo Fu
• Institution abroad: Beijing Normal University (BNU), China
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Pesquisadores principais: Tomas Ferreira Domingues
• Associated researchers: Bruna de Costa Alberton ; John Elton de Brito Leite Cunha ; Magna Soelma Beserra de Moura ; Mário Marcos do Espírito Santo ; Ricardo da Silva Torres ; Thieres George Freire da Silva
• Associated research grant(s): 24/02277-4 - Integrating FACE experiment and vegetation model to unravel the effects of increased CO2 on tropical forest phenology, AP.R
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/07226-9 - Temporal patterns of tropical leaf phenology and climate change: investigating drivers across communities and leaf functional groups, BP.PD; 23/05323-4 - Plant phenology and environmental information for biodiversity and climatic change, BP.TT

Abstract

Climate change has altered the environment, triggering extreme events of drought, heat, and flood, affecting plants, animals, and human activities, increasing the unequaled biodiversity loss that we witnessed today. Recent IPCC and United Nations reports indicate the need for information regarding biotic responses to climate change and associated extreme events, especially for the tropical regions holding most of Earth's biodiversity. Phenology, the study of recurrent life cycles in plants and animals, is highlighted as a key research topic to unravel the effects of climate change on high diverse systems. The project aims to investigate phenological responses to extreme drought events, and consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem services across Brazilian and Chinese forests in four work packages (WP): WP1: explore the tropical ecosystem (mainly forest) response to extreme drought using remote sensing (land surface phenology) temporal and spatial trends in drought and phenological extracted from the EVI and SIF datasets. WP2: explore the mechanisms under tropical phenology using multi-source datasets (Phenocam, UVA , in situ data sets; WP3: how the phenology changes affect the biodiversity in tropical forests/ecosystem; WP4: Citizen science - building a common citizen science phenology network program using the common urban tree Blue Jacaranda (Fabaceae).The proposal is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), prominently 15 - Life on Earth and 13 - Climate Action. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

RAMOS, DESIREE M.; ANDRADE, JOAO M.; ALBERTON, BRUNA C.; MOURA, MAGNA S. B.; DOMINGUES, TOMAS F.; NEVES, NATTALIA; LIMA, JOSE R. S.; SOUZA, RODOLFO; SOUZA, EDUARDO; SILVA, JOSE R.; et al. Multiscale phenology of seasonally dry tropical forests in an aridity gradient. FRONTIERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, v. 11, p. 16-pg., 2023-12-18. (19/11835-2, 13/50155-0, 21/10639-5, 16/01413-5, 22/07735-5, 15/50488-5, 14/00215-0, 09/54208-6, 17/17380-1)