Around the world, climate change has caused differences in mean temperature and precipitation, but also variation in the scale and timing of climatic events. The timing of weather events, such as germination-triggering rains, the melting of snowpack, and freeze or thaw cycles often have major effects on organisms that must synchronize birth, growth, and reproduction with favorable conditions. The timing of these events -- phenology -- in turn affects how individuals interact with their abiotic and biotic environment. Little is known about the sensitivity of demography to these shifts in ecological interactions, which can lead to phenological mismatches and altered population dynamics.

In collaboration with the globally distributed demography network, PlantPopNet, REU students will collect data on a globally distributed plant species, Plantago lanceolata, at a local population in Putah Creek Reserve to study how differences in temperature and water availability influence growth and reproductive phenology of plants, and how plant phenology influences interactions with pollinators, herbivores, and other competing plant species, as well as the consequences for growth, survival, and reproduction.

This project will provide critical information on the mechanisms driving phenological mismatches, which demographic rates are most sensitive to these shifts, and the implications for population dynamics and population persistence.

note: not available in 2023