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Updated: Sep 23, 2025
15:30
A Telemetric, Gravimetric Platform for Real-Time Physiological Phenotyping of Plant–Environment Interactions
Published on: August 5, 2020
11.8K
Environmental Cue Integration and Phenology in a Changing World.
Heather E Watts1,2, Ashley R Robart3, Thomas P Hahn4
1School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
Integrative and Comparative Biology
|May 13, 2022
Summary
Organisms use environmental cues for seasonal timing, but how they integrate multiple cues remains unclear. This study introduces a framework and model to understand cue integration and its impact on phenological adaptation to climate change.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Evolutionary Biology
- Climate Change Biology
Background:
- Organisms rely on environmental cues for critical life events like reproduction and migration.
- Climate change necessitates phenological adjustments, but evolved cue-use mechanisms can hinder or aid this adaptation.
- The integration of multiple environmental cues for precise seasonal timing is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a framework for understanding how organisms integrate environmental cues for seasonal timing.
- To explore how different modes of cue integration affect phenological adaptation to climate change.
Main Methods:
- Developed a conceptual framework incorporating cue dependency and cue interaction.
- Reviewed empirical data across vertebrate species and life cycle events.
- Utilized a theoretical model to simulate the impact of cue integration on phenological adjustment.
Main Results:
- The proposed framework categorizes various cue integration strategies.
- Empirical data from vertebrates align with the developed framework.
- Theoretical modeling demonstrates that cue integration modes significantly influence adaptive phenological responses to climate change.
Conclusions:
- A unified framework for cue integration in seasonal timing is established.
- Understanding cue integration is crucial for predicting species' responses to climate change.
- Theoretical modeling offers insights into complex ecological dynamics challenging in vivo study.
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