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Latitudinal shift in the timing of flowering of tree species across tropical Africa: insights from field observations and herbarium collections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2020

Dakis-Yaoba Ouédraogo Open the ORCID record for Dakis-Yaoba Ouédraogo [Opens in a new window] ,
Olivier J. Hardy ,
Jean-Louis Doucet ,
Steven B. Janssens ,
Jan J. Wieringa ,
Piet Stoffelen ,
Bhely Angoboy Ilondea ,
Fidèle Baya ,
Hans Beeckman  and
Kasso Daïnou
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Dakis-Yaoba Ouédraogo*
Affiliation:
TERRA Teaching and Research Centre, Forest is life, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
Olivier J. Hardy
Affiliation:
Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Faculté des Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Jean-Louis Doucet
Affiliation:
TERRA Teaching and Research Centre, Forest is life, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
Steven B. Janssens
Affiliation:
Meise Botanic Garden, Meise, Belgium
Jan J. Wieringa
Affiliation:
National Herbarium of the Netherlands, Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands
Piet Stoffelen
Affiliation:
Meise Botanic Garden, Meise, Belgium
Bhely Angoboy Ilondea
Affiliation:
Institut National pour l’Etude et la Recherche Agronomiques, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Fidèle Baya
Affiliation:
MEFCP/ICRA, BP 830, Bangui, Central African Republic
Hans Beeckman
Affiliation:
Service of Wood Biology, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium
Kasso Daïnou
Affiliation:
Nature+ asbl s/c BIOSE, Management of Forest Resources, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
Emilien Dubiez
Affiliation:
CIRAD, UR Forêts et Sociétés, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury
Affiliation:
CIRAD, UR Forêts et Sociétés, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
Adeline Fayolle
Affiliation:
TERRA Teaching and Research Centre, Forest is life, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium
*
Author for correspondence:*Dakis-Yaoba Ouédraogo, Email: dakis.ouedraogo@gmail.com
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Abstract

Temporal and spatial patterns in flowering phenology were assessed for eight tropical African tree species. Specifically, the frequency and seasonality of flowering at seven sites in central Africa were determined using field data, graphical analysis and circular statistics. Additionally, spatial variation in the timing of flowering across species range was investigated using herbarium data, analysing the relative influence of latitude, longitude and timing of the dry season with a Bayesian circular generalized linear model. Annual flowering was found for 20 out of the 25 populations studied. For 21 populations located at the north of the climatic hinge flowering was occurring during the dry season. The analysis of herbarium collections revealed a significant shift in the timing of flowering with latitude for E. suaveolens, and with the timing of the dry season for M. excelsa (and to a lesser extent L. alata), with the coexistence of two flowering peaks near the equator where the distribution of monthly rainfall is bimodal. For the other species, none of latitude, longitude or timing of the dry season had an effect on the timing of flowering. Our study highlights the need to identify the drivers of the flowering phenology of economically important African tree species.

Keywords

Climatic hingedry seasonfloweringherbarium specimenrainfallreproductive phenologytimber species
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , July 2020 , pp. 159 - 173
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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