In 2011, ITFC established a new monitoring activity, funded by a Climate Change grant fromthe MacArthur Foundation, through WCS. This type of study –called phenology –assesses variation in the timing of the events in a plant’s life cycle i.e. seasonal changes in leaf bearing and shedding, flowering and seed production.

Why a phenology study in Bwindi?

Seasonal variation in plant behavior and production has implications for the availability of resources for pollinators and seed and fruit consumers and thus may have major ecological consequences. Given the recent attention for climate change, disturbances in rainfall patterns and temperature are increasingly relevant. The importance of tropical forests like Bwindi for biodiversity conservation as well as the sequestration of carbon cannot be overstated. Thus, this study seeks to observe and quantify changes in the phenology of trees in Bwindi. For example, trees may flower and fruit earlier than their ‘normal’ season in response to an early start of the rainy season. Studies elsewhere in Uganda (Kibale forest) have already revealed phenological responses to climate change. Another MPI-led study in Bwindi has focused on the phenology of selected gorilla food plants (since 2005).

How are we doing this?

Eight hundred trees, with a diameter at breast height of over 5 cm have been selected and permanently labeled . Every month, our field team closely observes each tree crown with binoculars and estimates abundance of fruits, flowers and leaves. Each tree has been characterized with respect to its location, exposure, height, size and climber infestation. We will later analyse the correlation between trees’ site characteristics and phenology and will also allow for comparisons with other tropical forests where phenology studies are carried out.

This study will enhance current understanding of tropical forest climatic sensitivities and whether these sensitivities are changing.

In 2011, the understory plant Mimulopsis solmsii flowered gregariously, after which it died