ArticleEcology and evolution2026
Rapid Surveys Reveal Temporal Variation in Flowering Community Phenology in a Great Basin Desert Ecosystem.
Article in Ecology and evolution, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Understanding temporal variation in flowering phenology is essential for predicting plant community responses to climatic change, especially in arid regions where moisture pulses drive productivity. We examined seasonal and interannual patterns of flowering phenology across 4 years (spring 2021-spring 2024) at the western margin of the Great Basin Desert along the Eastern Sierras ecotone (Reno, Nevada). Community flowering was strongly seasonal: spring supported nearly five times more flowering species than fall, consistent with deep winter-spring moisture recharge. Phenological timing varied across functional groups in spring, with herbaceous annuals and non-native species showing more advanced flowering phenology than woody perennials and native species. In fall, communities showed only marginal phenological differentiation among lifespan groups. Interannual variation appeared to track climate conditions, with earlier flowering in cooler, wetter years and delayed flowering in warmer, drier years. Exploratory mixed-effects models suggested that precipitation received the strongest relative support among candidate predictors, although climate variables overall provided limited explanatory power. Our results demonstrate that rapid surveys can detect phenological shifts and functional group responses, offering an efficient monitoring tool for arid landscapes with bimodal flowering seasons or limited monitoring capacity. Because the Reno-Sparks region is among the fastest-warming areas in the United States and lies at the cusp of the Eastern Sierras ecotone, these baseline data provide a critical foundation for tracking future community-level shifts in flowering plant phenology.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.