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Observational study reveals staggered flowering peaks in tropical plants under variable rainfall, suggesting climate-buffered temporal organization.
A system of compensating phenological responses of different species to unusual rainfall conditions may play a major role in maintaining an orderly, staggered sequence of flowering peaks among the hummingbird-pollinated plants of a Costa Rican rain forest. Quantitative phenological studies over several years may be essential to understanding the temporal organization of many tropical communities.
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F. Gary Stiles (1977) studied this question.
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