Phenology serves as a major indicator of ongoing climate change. Long-term phenological observations are critically important for tracking and communicating these changes. The phenological observation network across Germany is operated by the National Meteorological Service with a major contribution from volunteering activities. However, the number of observers has strongly decreased for the last decades, possibly resulting in...

The flowering phenology of Coltsfoot ( Tussilago farfara L.) shows a very strong negative response to warmer temperatures in spring (warmer springs = earlier flowering) as reported in numerous studies for other species in Europe and North America. However, despite this, flowering dates in some locations have failed to show a strong advance and, in a small number of cases, have even shown significant delays. Here we use a very...

A paper published in Global Change Biology in 2006 revealed that phenological responses in 1971–2000 matched the warming pattern in Europe, but a lack of chilling and adaptation in farming may have reversed these findings. Therefore, for 1951–2018 in a corresponding data set, we determined changes as linear trends and analysed their variation by plant traits/groups, across season and time as well as their attribution to warmin...

Climate change has affected plant phenology; increasing temperatures are associated with advancing first flowering dates. The impact on flowering duration, however, has rarely been studied. In this study, we analysed first flowering dates and flowering durations from a 27 year dataset of weekly flower observations on 232 plant species from the island of Guernsey in the English Channel. The aim of this study was to explore vari...

It is well known that increased spring temperatures cause earlier onset dates of leaf unfolding and flowering. However, a temperature increase in winter may be associated with delayed development when species' chilling requirements are not fulfilled. Furthermore, photosensitivity is supposed to interfere with temperature triggers. To date, neither the relative importance nor possible interactions of these three factors have be...

A unique long‐term phenological data set of over 110 000 records of 1st cutting dates for haymaking across Germany, spanning the years 1951–2011 was examined. In addition, we analyzed a long‐term data set in the beginning of flowering of meadow foxtail ( Alopecurus pratensis ) covering the last 20 years. We tested whether hay‐cutting dates (based on a human decision when to cut) showed trends, temperature relationships and spa...

This study assesses recent and future changes in joint temperature and precipitation regimes at 28 sites in Bavaria, based on statistical downscaling of the ECHAM4 B2 Scenario (WETTREG). Monthly meteorological data of three future decades (2021–2030, 2031–2040 and 2041–2050) were compared with modelled data for the reference period 1971–2000. The bivariate data were classified into four weather types or modes (cooler/drier, co...

This study reports on alterations in the magnitude and frequency of extremes in reproductive phenology using long‐term records (1951–2008) for plant species widely distributed across Germany. For each of fourteen indicator phases studied, time series of annual onset dates at up to 119 stations, providing 50–58 years of observation, were standardized by their station mean and standard deviation. Four alternative statistical mod...

The phenology of 78 agricultural and horticultural events from a national survey in Germany spanning the years 1951–2004 is examined. The majority of events are significantly earlier now than 53 years ago, with a mean advance of 1.1–1.3 days per decade. The mean trends for ‘true phases’, such as emergence and flowering, of annual and perennial crops are not significantly different, although more trends (78% vs. 46%) are signif...

Global climate change impacts can already be tracked in many physical and biological systems; in particular, terrestrial ecosystems provide a consistent picture of observed changes. One of the preferred indicators is phenology, the science of natural recurring events, as their recorded dates provide a high‐temporal resolution of ongoing changes. Thus, numerous analyses have demonstrated an earlier onset of spring events for mi...

We analyse how variations in the climatological growing season, defined by single‐value thresholds of daily minimum and mean air temperature, mirror recent changes in plant phenological phases. In Germany (1951–2000, 41 climate stations), the dates of last spring frost T min A parallel evaluation of trends in the climatological growing season in other European countries (Austria, Switzerland, Estonia) supports this finding of...

Various indications for shifts in plant and animal phenology resulting from climate change have been observed in Europe. This analysis of phenological seasons in Germany of more than four decades (1951–96) has several major advantages: (i) a wide and dense geographical coverage of data from the phenological network of the German Weather Service, (ii) the 16 phenophases analysed cover the whole annual cycle and, moreover, give...