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Climate Change 2016
October 27-29, 2016
Volume 7, Issue 9(Suppl) J Earth Sci Clim Change
ISSN: 2157-7617 JESCC, an open access journal
conferenceseries .com
October 24-26, 2016 Valencia, Spain
World Conference onClimate Change
Past and future changes in trees spring phenology in Lithuania under changing climate conditions
Irma Sveikauskaite, Romualdas Juknys, Arvydas Kanapickas, Gintar, Sujetovien
Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
The analysis of long-term data of spring phenology for different deciduous trees species showed that leaf unfolding for
all investigated species is the most sensitive to temperatures in March and April illustrating that forcing temperature is
the main driver of spring phenology. The most notable -12.7 days over the investigated 58 year period, advancement in leaf
unfolding was detected for early season species birch. The least advancement in leaf unfolding - 9.4 days over was detected
for maple, 10.3 and 10.4 days advancement for lime and oak respectively. The projection of climatic parameters for Central
Lithuania on the basis of three different Global CirculationModels has shown that under the pesimistic climate change scenario
- RCP 2.6, the mean temperature tends to increase by 1.28oC and under the pesimistic scenario – RCP 8.5, by 5.03oC until the
end of the 21st century. Recently, different statistical models are used to analyze and to project the changes in spring phenology.
Our study has shown that when the data of long-term phenological observations are available, multiple regression models are
suitable for the projection of the advancement of leaf unfolding under the changing climate. According to the RCP 8.5 scenario,
the projected advancement in leaf unfolding for early-season species birch consists of almost 15 days as an average of all three
used GSMs. Markedly less response to the projected far future (2071-2100) climate change is foreseen for other investigated
climax species; 9 days for lime, 10 days for oak and 11 days for maple.
Biography
Irma Sveikauskaite is a PhD student of Environmental Sciences since 2013. Her field of interest is “Past and Future Changes in Phenology under Changing Climate
Conditions”. Currently, she is pursuing her internship at Acadia National Park (Maine, USA) working on some experimental project with Dr. Abraham Miller-Rushing.
She investigates chilling importance for the different trees species spring phenology and try to incorporate physiological data to the models.
Irma Sveikauskaite, J Earth Sci Clim Change 2016, 7:9(Suppl)