The "Downscale phenology of invasive species: the hidden side from canopy to flower" will be presented at the 15th International Conference on Ecology and Management of Alien Plant invasions, which will take place in Prague, Czech Republic from 9th to 13th September 2019. The abstract is a result of the work conducted by Sara Vicente, Cristina Máguas, Helena Trindade and Manuela Giovanetti.
Abstract:
Phenology monitoring has been carried on since ancient times, helping in predicting plants and animals’ responses to climate variability, environment heterogeneity, anthropogenic land management. Nowadays is tackled from different perspectives: from the inclusion of data coming from museum historical collections as digitization of herbarium specimens, to satellite remote sensing and drone-mounted cameras. While these approaches give indications at large time and geographic scales, they are unable to disentangle direct influence of local conditions on individual reproductive success (Fernandes et al. 2015). Invasive species frequently show local outstanding success that, when not properly managed across early warning measures, quickly expand the geographic range of invasion of the species. Acacia longifolia (Andrews) Willd., a leguminous species native from South-eastern Australia and Tasmania, is considered one of the most aggressive invaders worldwide. It already brought severe environmental and socio-economical problems in European Mediterranean countries, South Africa, California (USA), and it is starting now its invasion of Brazil.
To address the success of this species, from local to global in different environmental conditions, we applied a downscale approach to that part of the plant phenology related to its reproductive output, i.e. the flowering and the pollination success. In Portugal we selected three locations along a climatic gradient, and recorded plant phenology from the canopy level, down to that of differently-oriented branches, and finally to that of individual flowers. Phenological states of flowers have been described for the first time and daily recorded, allowing to establish anthesis duration at each location. Marked branches were further recorded for successful pollination and seed production. Preliminary analyses of data spotted differences at all investigated levels, highlighting the influence of local conditions on the overall phenological traits of the species by elusive effect on the investment in flowering effort. Moreover, the large investment in flower number observed in A. longifolia paired with the low pollination success, confirm previous hypothesis of the species being ambophilous and suffering from shortage of pollinator visits (Giovanetti et al. 2018). Notwithstanding, seed production is relatively abundant underlining a heavy parental investment in cross-reproduction and unlimited potential to reinforce invasion strength.
Fernandes et al. 2015. Plant Ecology, 216, pp. 343–355. Giovanetti et al. 2018. Web Ecology, 18, pp. 47-54.
Keywords: Acacia longifolia, flowering phenology, reproductive potential, invasion strength