Phenological response patterns of forest communities to annual weather variability at long-term ecological monitoring sites in Western Himalaya

摘要: This paper presents the periodicity of phenophases in 28 tree species (142 individuals), 58 shrub, and 72 herb species' populations for 23 months (during 2018–2020) vis-a-vis weather variability in four semi-deciduous and evergreen forests along an altitudinal transect (680–1860 m asl) in long-term ecological monitoring (LTEM) sites in Western Himalaya. Across these forests, atmospheric temperature, relative humidity, and annual rainfall declined significantly with increasing elevation. The autumn to winter period (October-February) of 2019 was characterized by higher temperature (0.49 °C), rainfall (48.5 mm), and relative humidity (9%) in comparison to 2018. Vegetative bud-break, leafing and leaf drop occurred predominantly in the spring season (March-April) followed by flowering and fruiting through summer until the onset of the rainy season. All the phenophases occurred in 3–4 episodes of varying …