Home LiteratureArticle Details
PMID: 19338634 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Review

The role of botanical gardens in climate change research.

The New phytologist ·Vol. 182 ·No. 2 ·2009-00-00 ·Pages 303-313

Primack RB, Miller-Rushing AJ

Abstract

Botanical gardens have a unique set of resources that allows them to host important climate change research projects not easily undertaken elsewhere. These resources include controlled growing conditions, living collections with broad taxonomic representation, meticulous record-keeping, networks spanning wide geographic areas, and knowledgeable staff. Indeed, botanical gardens have already contributed significantly to our understanding of biological responses to climate change, particularly the effects of temperature on the timing of flowering and leaf-out. They have also made significant contributions to the understanding of the relationships among climate, physiology, and anatomy. Gardens are finding new uses for traditional research tools such as herbarium specimens and historical photographs, which are increasingly being used to obtain information on past plant behavior. Additional work on invasive species and comparative studies of responses to climatic variation are providing insights on important ecological, evolutionary, and management questions. With their large collections of plant species from throughout the world and excellent herbaria, botanical gardens are well positioned to expand their current activities to continue to provide leadership in climate change research and education.

MeSH Terms
Environmental Monitoring/methods Gardening Greenhouse Effect Plants Research Design
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Primack Richard B
Biology Department, Boston University, 5 Cummington St., Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Miller-Rushing Abraham J
USA National Phenology Network, 1955 East Sixth St., Tucson, AZ 85719, USA. | The Wildlife Society, 5410 Grosvenor Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
References (74)
74 references, click to expand
  1. Ainsworth EA, Rogers A. 2007. The response of photosynthesis and stomatal conductance to rising [CO2]: mechanisms and environmental interactions. Plant, Cell & Environment 30: 258-270.
  2. Beerling DJ. 1996. Ecophysiological responses of woody plants to past CO2 concentrations. Tree Physiology 16: 389-396.
  3. Betancourt JL, Schwartz MD, Breshears DD, Cayan DR, Dettinger MD, Inouye DW, Post E, Reed BC. 2005. Implementing a USA-National Phenology Network (USA-NPN). EOS 86: 539-542.
  4. Bolmgren K, Lonnberg K. 2005. Herbarium data reveal an association between fleshy fruit type and earlier flowering time. International Journal of Plant Sciences 166: 663-670.
  5. Bowers JE. 2007. Has climatic warming altered spring flowering date of Sonoran Desert shrubs? The Southwestern Naturalist 52: 347-355.
  6. Caley P, Lonsdale WM, Pheloung PC. 2006. Quantifying uncertainty in predictions of invasiveness, with emphasis on weed risk assessment. Biological Invasions 8: 1595-1604.
  7. Cayan DR, Kammerdiener SA, Dettinger MD, Caprio JM, Peterson DH. 2001. Changes in the onset of spring in the western United States. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 82: 399-415.
  8. Chmielewski FM, Rotzer T. 2001. Response of tree phenology to climate change across Europe. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 108: 101-112.
  9. Chmielewski F-M. 1996. The international phenological gardens across Europe: present state and perspectives. Phenology and Seasonality 1: 19-23.
  10. Cleland EE, Chiariello NR, Loarie SR, Mooney HA, Field CB. 2006. Diverse responses of phenology to global changes in a grassland ecosystem. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 103: 13740-13744.
  11. Dawson W, Mndolwa AS, Burslem D, Hulme PE. 2008. Assessing the risks of plant invasions arising from collections in tropical botanical gardens. Biodiversity and Conservation 17: 1979-1995.
  12. De Carvalho M, Wilcock CC, Dos Santos TMM, Lucas ICV, Gananca JFT, Franco E, Thangadurai D, Rao DM, Sousa NF. 2004. A review of the genus Semele (Ruscaceae) systematics in Madeira. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 146: 483-497.
  13. DeBussche M, Garnier E, Thompson JD. 2004. Exploring the causes of variation in phenology and morphology in mediterranean geophytes: a genus-wide study of Cyclamen. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 145: 469-484.
  14. Del Tredici P. 2002. A camellia grows in Boston. The New York Times, 26 November, p. A27.
  15. Dosmann MS. 2006. Research in the garden: averting the collections crisis. Botanical Review 72: 207-234.
  16. Dukes JS, Mooney HA. 1999. Does global change increase the success of biological invaders? Trends in Ecology & Evolution 14: 135-139.
  17. Fernandez MD, Pieters A, Donoso C, Tezara W, Azkue M, Herrera C, Rengifo E, Herrera A. 1998. Effects of a natural source of very high CO2 concentration on the leaf gas exchange, xylem water potential and stomatal characteristics of plants of Spatiphylum cannifolium and Bauhinia multinervia. New Phytologist 138: 689-697.
  18. Fitter AH, Fitter RSR. 2002. Rapid changes in flowering time in British plants. Science 296: 1689-1691.
  19. Gordo O. 2007. Why are bird migration dates shifting? A review of weather and climate effects on avian migratory phenology. Climate Research 35: 37-58.
  20. Gregg JW, Jones CG, Dawson TE. 2003. Urbanization effects on tree growth in the vicinity of New York City. Nature 424: 183-187.
  21. Harper G, Morris L. 2007. Flowering and climate change - part II. Sibbaldia 5: 25-42.
  22. Harper GH, Mann DG, Thompson R. 2004. Phenological monitoring at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Sibbaldia 2: 33-45.
  23. Harrison AE. 1974. Reoccupying unmarked camera stations for geological observations. Geology 2: 469-471.
  24. Hetherington AM, Woodward FI. 2003. The role of stomata in sensing and driving environmental change. Nature 424: 901-908.
  25. Hovenden MJ, Wills KE, Schoor JKV, Williams AL, Newton PCD. 2008. Flowering phenology in a species-rich temperate grassland is sensitive to warming but not elevated CO2. New Phytologist 178: 815-822.
  26. Ibanez I, Clark JS, Dietze MC, Feeley K, Hersh M, LaDeau S, McBride A, Welch NE, Wolosin MS. 2006. Predicting biodiversity change: outside the climate envelope, beyond the species-area curve. Ecology 87: 1896-1906.
  27. Ishii Y. 1990. Studies on flowering duration of various Japanese cherry species planted in the Tama Forest Science Garden. Bulletin of Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute 357: 95-152.
  28. Iverson LR, Prasad AM. 1998. Predicting abundance of 80 tree species following climate change in the eastern United States. Ecological Monographs 68: 465-485.
  29. Jefferson L, Havens K, Ault J. 2004. Implementing invasive screening procedures: the Chicago Botanic Garden model. Weed Technology 18: 1434-1440.
  30. Karlson DT, Xiang QY, Stirm VE, Shirazi AM, Ashworth EN. 2004. Phylogenetic analyses in Cornus substantiate ancestry of xylem supercooling freezing behavior and reveal lineage of desiccation related proteins. Plant Physiology 135: 1654-1665.
  31. Karlson DT, Zeng Y, Stirm VE, Joly RJ, Ashworth EN. 2003. Photoperiodic regulation of a 24-kd dehydrin-like protein in red-osier dogwood (Cornus sericea L.) in relation to freeze-tolerance. Plant and Cell Physiology 44: 25-34.
  32. Lavoie C, Lachance D. 2006. A new herbarium-based method for reconstructing the phenology of plant species across large areas. American Journal of Botany 93: 512-516.
  33. Lehikoinen E, Sparks TH, Zalakevicius M. 2004. Arrival and departure dates. Birds and Climate Change 35: 1-31.
  34. Li JH, Shoup S, Chen ZD. 2005. Phylogenetics of Betula (Betulaceae) inferred from sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA. Rhodora 107: 69-86.
  35. McLachlan JS, Hellmann JJ, Schwartz MW. 2007. A framework for debate of assisted migration in an era of climate change. Conservation Biology 21: 297-302.
  36. Menzel A. 2000. Trends in phenological phases in Europe between 1951 and 1996. International Journal of Biometeorology 44: 76-81.
  37. Menzel A. 2003. Europe. In: Schwartz MD, ed. Phenology: an integrative environmental science. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 45-56.
  38. Menzel A, Estrella N, Fabian P. 2001. Spatial and temporal variability of the phenological seasons in Germany from 1951 to 1996. Global Change Biology 7: 657-666.
  39. Menzel A, Fabian P. 1999. Growing season extended in Europe. Nature 397: 659-659.
  40. Menzel A, Sparks TH, Estrella N, Koch E, Aasa A, Ahas R, Alm-Kubler K, Bissolli P, Braslavska O, Briede A et al . 2006. European phenological response to climate change matches the warming pattern. Global Change Biology 12: 1969-1976.
  41. Miller-Rushing AJ, Inouye DW, Primack RB. 2008. How well do first flowering dates measure plant responses to climate change? The effects of population size and sampling frequency. Journal of Ecology 96: 1289-1296.
  42. Miller-Rushing AJ, Katsuki T, Primack RB, Ishii Y, Lee SD, Higuchi H. 2007. Impact of global warming on a group of related species and their hybrids: cherry tree (Rosaceae) flowering at Mt. Takao, Japan. American Journal of Botany 94: 1470-1478.
  43. Miller-Rushing AJ, Primack RB, Primack D, Mukunda S. 2006. Photographs and herbarium specimens as tools to document phenological changes in response to global warming. American Journal of Botany 93: 1667-1674.
  44. Miller-Rushing AJ, Primack RB. 2008a. Effects of winter temperatures on two birch (Betula) species. Tree Physiology 28: 659-664.
  45. Miller-Rushing AJ, Primack RB. 2008b. Global warming and flowering times in Thoreau's concord: a community perspective. Ecology 89: 332-341.
  46. Miyazawa S. 2005. Stomatal development in new leaves is related to the stomatal conductance of mature leaves in poplar (Populus trichocarpa ×P. deltoides). Journal of Experimental Botany 57: 373-380.
  47. Moller AP, Rubolini D, Lehikoinen E. 2008. Populations of migratory bird species that did not show a phenological response to climate change are declining. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 105: 16195-16200.
  48. Morin X, Augspurger C, Chuine I. 2007. Process-based modeling of species’ distributions: what limits temperate tree species’ range boundaries? Ecology 88: 2280-2291.
  49. New England Regional Assessment Group. 2001. New England regional assessment. Durham, NH, USA: University of New Hampshire, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space.
  50. Oh SH, Potter D. 2005. Molecular phylogenetic systematics and biogeography of tribe Neillieae (Rosaceae) using DNA sequences of cpDNA, rDNA, and LEAFY. American Journal of Botany 92: 179-192.
  51. Parmesan C. 2007. Influences of species, latitudes and methodologies on estimates of phenological response to global warming. Global Change Biology 13: 1860-1872.
  52. Parmesan C, Yohe G. 2003. A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems. Nature 421: 37-42.
  53. Penuelas J, Azconbieto J. 1992. Changes in leaf delta-C-13 of herbarium plant species during the last 3 centuries of CO2 increase. Plant, Cell & Environment 15: 485-489.
  54. Penuelas J, Matamala R. 1990. Changes in N and S leaf content, stomatal density and specific leaf area of 14 plant species during the last three centuries of CO2 increase. Journal of Experimental Botany 41: 1119-1124.
  55. Primack D, Imbres C, Primack RB, Miller-Rushing AJ, Del Tredici P. 2004. Herbarium specimens demonstrate earlier flowering times in response to warming in Boston. American Journal of Botany 91: 1260-1264.
  56. Rogers GF, Malde HE, Turner RM. 1984. Bibliography of repeat photography for evaluating landscape change. Salt Lake City, UT, USA: University of Utah Press.
  57. Root TL, Price JT, Hall KR, Schneider SH, Rosenzweig C, Pounds JA. 2003. Fingerprints of global warming on wild animals and plants. Nature 421: 57-60.
  58. Royer DL. 2001. Stomatal density and stomatal index as indicators of paleoatmospheric CO2 concentration. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 114: 1-28.
  59. Sarnighausen E, Karlson D, Ashworth E. 2002. Seasonal regulation of a 24-kda protein from red-osier dogwood (Cornus sericea) xylem. Tree Physiology 22: 423-430.
  60. Schwartz MD. 1994. Monitoring global change with phenology: the case of the spring green wave. International Journal of Biometeorology 38: 18-22.
  61. Schwartz MD, Beaubien EG. 2003. North America. In: Schwartz MD, ed. Phenology: an integrative environmental science. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 57-73.
  62. Schwartz MD, Reiter BE. 2000. Changes in North American spring. International Journal of Climatology 20: 929-932.
  63. Sparks T. 2007. Lateral thinking on data to identify climate impacts. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 22: 169-171.
  64. Sparks T, Huber K, Croxton P. 2006. Plant development scores from fixed-date photographs: the influence of weather variables and recorder experience. International Journal of Biometeorology 50: 275.
  65. Sullivan PF, Welker JM. 2007. Variation in leaf physiology of Salix arctica within and across ecosystems in the high Arctic: test of a dual isotope (delta13C and delta18O) conceptual model. Oecologia 151: 372-386.
  66. Thomas CD, Cameron A, Green RE, Bakkenes M, Beaumont LJ, Collingham YC, Erasmus BFN, De Siqueira MF, Grainger A, Hannah L et al . 2004. Extinction risk from climate change. Nature 427: 145-148.
  67. Tricker PJ, Trewin H, Kull O, Clarkson GJJ. 2005. Stomatal conductance and not stomatal density determines the long-term reduction in leaf transpiration of poplar in elevated CO2. Oecologia 143: 652-660.
  68. Trimble SW, Crosson P. 2000. Land use: U.S. soil erosion rates - myth and reality. Science 289: 248-250.
  69. Van der Veken S, Hermy M, Vellend M, Knapen A, Verheyen K. 2008. Garden plants get a head start on climate change. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 6: 212-216.
  70. Van Vliet AJH, De Groot RS, Bellens Y, Braun P, Bruegger R, Bruns E, Clevers J, Estreguil C, Flechsig M, Jeanneret F et al . 2003. The European phenology network. International Journal of Biometeorology 47: 202-212.
  71. Walther GR. 2002. Weakening of climatic constraints with global warming and its consequences for evergreen broad-leaved species. Folia Geobotanica 37: 129-139.
  72. Willis CG, Ruhfel B, Primack RB, Miller-Rushing AJ, Davis CC. 2008. Phylogenetic patterns of species loss in Thoreau's woods are driven by climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 105: 17029-17033.
  73. Wolfe DW, Schwartz MD, Lakso AN, Otsuki Y, Pool RM, Shaulis NJ. 2005. Climate change and shifts in spring phenology of three horticultural woody perennials in northeastern USA. International Journal of Biometeorology 49: 303-309.
  74. Woodward FI. 1987. Stomatal numbers are sensitive to increases in CO2 from pre-industrial levels. Nature 327: 617-618.
Article Info
Journal
The New phytologist
Abbr.
New Phytol
ISSN
1469-8137
DOI
10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02800.x
Published
2009-00-00
Pages
303-313
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
9882884
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02800.x View journal details
Analysis Services
Analysis Services

Contact

No. 2 Wenbo Road, Zhangqiu District, Jinan, Shandong

Qilu Normal University · Genelibs Bioinformatics Lab

750 Shunhua Rd, Jinan

2F, Bldg F, University Science Park

Tel: 0531-88819269

WeChat Official Account

Follow our WeChat subscription account for real-time updates and the latest in medical and biological research.


Business Email

E-mail: product@genelibs.com

Copyright © 2026.Genelibs Jinan Honghui Biotechnology Co., Ltd. 鲁ICP备20007159号-2