Warming shortens flowering seasons of tundra plant communities

Advancing phenologyis one of the most visible effects of climate change on plant communities, and has been especially pronounced in temperature-limited tundraecosystems. However, phenologicalresponses have been shown to differ greatly between species, with some species shifting phenologymore than others. We analysed a database of 42,689 tundraplant phenologicalobservations to show that warmer temperatures are leading to a contraction of community-level flowering seasons in tundraecosystems due to a greater advancement in the flowering times of late-flowering species than early-flowering species. Shorter flowering seasons with a changing climate have the potential to alter trophic interactions in tundraecosystems. Interestingly, these findings differ from those of warmer ecosystems, where early-flowering species have been found to be more sensitive to temperature change, suggesting that community-level phenologicalresponses to warming can vary greatly between biomes.