Differences in phenological term changes in field crops and wild plants – do they have the same response to climate change in Central Europe?

Abstract Phenological shifts in wild-growing plants and wild animal phenophases are well documented at many European sites. Less is known about phenological shifts in agricultural plants and how wild ecosystem phenology interacts with crop phenology. Here, we present long-term phenological observations (1961-2021) from the Czech Republic for wild plants and agricultural crops and how the timing of phenophases differs from each other. The phenology of wild-growing plants was observed at various experimental sites with no agriculture or forestry management within the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute observations. The phenological data of the crops were collected from small experimental plots at the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture. The data clearly show a tendency to shift to earlier times during the whole observation period. The data also show some asynchrony in phenological shifts. Compared with wild plants, agricultural crops showed more expressive shifts to the start of the season. Phenological trends for crop plants (Triticum aestivum) showed accelerated shifts of 4.1 and 5.1 days per decade at low and middle altitudes, respectively; on the other hand, the average phenological shift for wild plants showed smaller shifts of 2.7 and 2.9 days per decade at low and middle altitudes, respectively. Phenological data also showed variability in correlations with climate parameters (only one phenophase of T. aestivum, heading, showed a statistically significant correlation not only with temperature but also with precipitation). To better understand theimpacts of climate on phenological changes, it is optimal to evaluate natural and unaffected plant responses in wild species.