OOS 38-1 - The environmental regulation of flowering times in moist tropical forests

Friday, August 12, 2016: 8:00 AM
Grand Floridian Blrm E, Ft Lauderdale Convention Center
S. Joseph Wright1, Jess K. Zimmerman2, Renato Valencia3, Nancy C. Garwood4, Yu-Yun Chen5, I-Fang Sun6, Christine Fletcher7 and Helene C. Muller-Landau1, (1)Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, (2)Department of Environmental Science, University of Puerto Rico - Rio Piedras, San Juan, PR, (3)Laboratorio de Ecología de Plantas, Herbario QCA, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador, (4)Department of Plant Biology, Southern Ilinois University, Carbondale, IL, (5)Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, National DongHwa University, Taiwan, (6)Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan, (7)Forest Research Institute Malaysia, SL 52109, Malaysia
Background/Question/Methods

The timing of flowering depends on an environmental trigger or proximal cue and might be modified by additional environmental factors. The environmental triggers and modifying factors that determine flowering times in tropical forests are the subject of conjecture. Hypotheses advance variation in temperature, moisture availability, day length, maximum solar irradiance, and daily solar insolation at the forest canopy or at the top of the atmosphere. We advance the new hypothesis that atmospheric vapor pressure deficits influence flowering times. We evaluate all of these hypotheses in a model selection framework against long-term flower records from tropical forests located at 0⁰41’S (Yasuni), 2⁰58’N (Pasoh), 9⁰08’N (BCI) and 18⁰21’N (Luquillo). Our flower records begin in 2001, 2002, 1987 and 1992, respectively, and include species-level identification of all flowers collected in weekly (Pasoh and BCI) or twice monthly (Yasuni and Luquillo) censuses of 200, 336, 200 and 120 0.5-m2 traps, respectively. Our meteorological data include hourly temperature, rainfall, relative humidity and solar irradiance for Pasoh, BCI and Luquillo.

Results/Conclusions

Preliminary analyses indicate that drought, low temperature and insolation at the forest canopy all influence tropical flowering times. We will complete our analyses before April. We will edit this abstract to include detailed results that are not yet available in April.