As climate change looms, we urgently need to understand how ecosystems will respond. Plant phenology, or the timing of developmental events like flowering, offers a powerful lens to make sense of the changes we are likely to see. Phenology is both driven by climate and deeply impacts ecosystem functioning. The timing of trees leafing out, blooming, and fruiting are key events in ecosystems, and even small perturbations in this timing can have drastic, cascading effects across an ecosystem. A recent special issue of Applications in Plant Sciences titled "Emerging Frontiers in Phenological Research" presents several studies on the forefront of phenological research.
* This article was originally published here
