Differences in the shift of phenological phases of field crops and wild plants in the Czech Republic from 1961 to 2022

Global climate change impacts are already monitored in ecosystems and they reveal e.g. earlier onset of spring stages and lengthening plant growing season. However, available results are mainly based on the study of wild plants, whereas only a few studies are devoted to agricultural crops. In this study, phenological data have been used to interpret the influence of climate change on phenological stages of winter wheat, spring barley, Norway maple and lime tree to compare the influence of climate change on field and forest plants and distinguish the influence of farming practices from real climate. So far, not many studies dealt with comparison of phenological shifts between agricultural crops and wild plants. The analyses were focused mainly on subsequent stages: tillering (BBCH 21) in spring barley, heading (BBCH 55) in winter wheat, first leaves (BBCH 11) in Norway maple and beginning of flowering (BBCH 61) in lime tree. The aims of this paper were to calculate the trend in phenological development of winter wheat, spring barley, Norway maple and lime tree in the period 1961–2022 in different climatic zones of the Czech Republic and find out the difference between field crops and wild plants. Mann-Kendall test and Geographic Information system were used. The results showed most significant acceleration of the first leaves in Norway maple up to -28.9 days per period and beginning of flowering in lime tree up to -28.7 days per period. In field crops, the acceleration by heading in winter wheat was up to -13.7 days per period and by tillering in spring barley it was up to -11.6 days per period. A significant trend was found especially in the middle altitudes.

Key words: spring barley, winter wheat, Norway maple, lime tree, BBCH