Phenology | EPFL Graph Search

Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leaves and flowers, the first flight of butterflies, the first appearance of migratory birds, the date of leaf colouring and fall in deciduous trees, the dates of egg-laying of birds and amphibia, or the timing of the developmental cycles of temperate-zone honey bee colonies. In the scientific literature on ecology, the term is used more generally to indicate the time frame for any seasonal biological phenomena, including the dates of last appearance (e.g., the seasonal phenology of a species may be from April through September). Because many such phenomena are very sensitive to small variations in climate, especially to temperature, phenological records can be a useful proxy for temperature in historical climatology, especially in the study of clima

Improving slash-and-burn agriculture in Central Menabe, Madagascar

Justine Marie Gay des Combes

Slash-and-burn agriculture is considered as an important driver of deforestation in the tropics. In Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot, this type of agriculture particularly threatens the tropical forest cover. On the south-western coast of the island, in Central Menabe, the dry tropical forest of Kirindy suffers from an annual deforestation of 2.6%. At such alarming rate, the forest will have entirely disappeared by 2050. The attention of past research programs and conservation actions were mainly on studying the forest or the general interactions between local populations and the forest, with little focus on the slash-and-burn agricultural system itself. Hence, understanding the cultivation practices and assessing alternatives to them is crucial to improve the current forest conservation initiatives. The present thesis answers to the need of an in-depth study of the agricultural practices in Central Menabe. The project aims to (1) analyze the practices of slash-and-burn cultivation in Kirindy forest, (2) explore alternative slash-and-burn practices which may be more sustainable for the forest, (3) determine the implementation perspectives of these alternatives. In a first stage, we have characterized soil productivity along repetitive slash-and-burn cultivation cycles and the farmerâs perception of their agricultural system. Then, we experimented a selective slash-and-burn agriculture (where trees are left intentionally within the cultivated fields), coupled with compost amendment. Finally, we have assessed the implementation potential of that technique through interviews and participating workshops with local farmers. Our findings highlighted that soil depletion due to plant uptake and erosion or leaching by heavy rains, as well as weed invasion were important problems of slash-and-burn cultivation in Central Menabe. Farmers perceive weeding as a work overload. Decrease in grain yield due to slash-and-burn agriculture reaches about 40% after three years of cultivation on the same field (from 4 to 2.5 t ha-1), and decreases up to 75% after a single cyclonic rainy season (from 4 to 1 t ha-1). Further, we demonstrated that combining compost and wood ashes (from the burnings) seems a promising solution to sustain cultivation on the fields. Compost, combined with wood ashes, multiplied corn yield by 5 compared to traditional slash-and-burn agriculture. Growth rates were accelerated and phenology stages of maize plants advanced. Furthermore, this combination also increased soil security by improving the remaining stock of nutrients after a rain simulation. On the other hand, a partial remaining tree cover (selective slash-and-burn agriculture) improved corn yields only when the soil was amended with ashes, not with compost, nor the combination of both. Implementing composting in the forest dwelling communities appears to be a challenging task. Several barriers were highlighted, among them the most important was the water constraints during a consequent period of time related to compost maintenance. Alternative slash-and-burn practices have not been much studied so far because the use of fire was always considered as destructive. Thus, our result will contribute to the development of new forest management strategies which would balance conservation of habitats and rural communities agricultural needs, while minimizing the impact on primary forest.

EPFL2017

Using PhenoCams to track crop phenology and explain the effects of different cropping systems on yield

Christoph Bachofen, Yujie Liu

CONTEXT: Crop phenology integrates information of how environmental drivers and management practices affect plant performance and crop yield. However, little is known about the impact of cropping systems (CS) on crop phenology and how this relates to differences in yield. OBJECTIVES: We assessed the applicability of PhenoCams to track crop phenology, how four CS, i.e., organic vs. conventional farming with either intensive or conservation (no/reduced) tillage affect the phenology of a pea-barley mixture and winter wheat, how crop phenology is related to harvest characteristics, e.g., grain yield and total N uptake, and explains CS effects on these characteristics. METHODS: We used time-lapse cameras (PhenoCams) to track vegetation changes in the two crops and extracted the green chromatic coordinate (GCC) to estimate different phenological metrics, i.e., dates with major changes in GCC (PhenoTimePoints), the duration between those (PhenoPhases), and the rate of increasing or decreasing GCC (PhenoSlopes). We assessed how phenological metrics were affected by different CS, and related pheno-logical metrics to harvest characteristics. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: CS significantly affected phenological metrics of both crops, with less pronounced effects in the unfertilized pea-barley mixture compared to the fertilized winter wheat, and stronger effects for early-season than for late-season PhenoTimePoints. For winter wheat, organic compared to conventional farming caused an initial growth lag (up to 7 days) and a shorter duration (approximately 10 days) of the period of stable GCC. Winter wheat in reduced/no-tillage systems showed a tendency of delayed phenology (up to 5 days) compared to intensive tillage. While phenological metrics explained harvest characteristics of winter wheat well, they were almost unrelated to those of pea-barley, most likely because pea-barley yields were similar among CS. For winter wheat, effects of CS on harvest characteristics could be well explained by phenological metrics (max. R2 = 0.9). Thus, we demonstrated that delayed phenology acted as an important factor causing lower yield in organic compared to conventional farming. SIGNIFICANCE: PhenoCams are valuable tool for high-resolution temporal monitoring of crop phenology. As different CS have been proposed as a tool for climate change adaptation, we suggest that the effects of CS on crop phenology need to be considered as they may impact yield via changes in crop phenology, particularly in organic agriculture.

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2022

Asymmetric effects of cooler and warmer winters on beech phenology last beyond spring

Alexandre Buttler, María Paula Sanginés De Cárcer, Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Constant Signarbieux, Ester Toledano Díaz, Yann Vitasse

In temperate trees, the timings of plant growth onset and cessation affect biogeochemical cycles, water, and energy balance. Currently, phenological studies largely focus on specific phenophases and on their responses to warming. How differently spring phenology responds to the warming and cooling, and affects the subsequent phases, has not been yet investigated in trees. Here, we exposed saplings of Fagus sylvatica L. to warmer and cooler climate during the winter 2013-2014 by conducting a reciprocal transplant experiment between two elevations (1,340 vs. 371m a.s.l., ca. 6 degrees C difference) in the Swiss Jura mountains. To test the legacy effects of earlier or later budburst on the budset timing, saplings were moved back to their original elevation shortly after the occurrence of budburst in spring 2014. One degree decrease in air temperature in winter/spring resulted in a delay of 10.9 days in budburst dates, whereas one degree of warming advanced the date by 8.8 days. Interestingly, we also found an asymmetric effect of the warmer winter vs. cooler winter on the budset timing in late summer. Budset of saplings that experienced a cooler winter was delayed by 31days compared to the control, whereas it was delayed by only 10 days in saplings that experienced a warmer winter. Budburst timing in 2015 was not significantly impacted by the artificial advance or delay of the budburst timing in 2014, indicating that the legacy effects of the different phenophases might be reset during each winter. Adapting phenological models to the whole annual phenological cycle, and considering the different response to cooling and warming, would improve predictions of tree phenology under future climate warming conditions.

Wiley2017