Abstract
Climate warming changes the phenology of many species. When interacting organisms respond differently, climate change may disrupt their interactions and affect the stability of ecosystems. Here, we used GBIF occurrence records to examine phenology trends in plants and their associated insect pollinators in Germany since the 1980s. We found strong phenological advances in plants, but differences in the extent of shifts among pollinator groups. The temporal trends in plant and insect phenologies were generally associated with interannual temperature variation, and thus likely driven by climate change. When examining the synchrony of species-level plant-pollinator interactions, their temporal trends differed among pollinator groups. Overall, plant-pollinator interactions become more synchronized, mainly since the phenology of plants responded more strongly to climate change than that of the pollinators. However, if the observed trends continue, many interactions may become more asynchronous again in the future. Our study suggests that climate change affects the phenologies of both plants and insects, and that it also influences the synchrony of plant-pollinator interactions.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Streamlining manuscript, removing parts detracting from main message due to overcomplication, revising figures and tables. Most notably analysis of pollinator dependence was removed.
https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/download/0230267-200613084148143
https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/download/0230266-200613084148143
https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/download/0230268-200613084148143
https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/download/0230291-200613084148143
https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/c26a65020a5e4b80b20018f148556681
https://doi.org/10.5285/6d8d5cb5-bd54-4da7-903a-15bd4bbd531b
https://github.com/jonasfreimuth/Phenological-shifts-germany