The USA National Phenology Network; taking the pulse of our planet

People have tracked phenology for centuries and for the most practical reasons: it helped them know when to hunt and fish, when to plant and harvest crops, and

What is Phenology?

when to navigate waterways. Now phenology is being used as a tool to assess climate change and its effects on both natural and modified ecosystems.

How is the timing of events in plant and animal life cycles, like flowering or migration, responding to climate change? And how are those responses, in turn, affecting people and ecosystems?

The USA National Phenology Network (the Network) is working to answer these questions for science and society by promoting a broad understanding of plant and animal phenology and their relationship to environmental change. The Network is a consortium of organizations and individuals that collect, share, and use phenology data, models, and related information to enable scientists, resource managers, and the public to adapt in response to changing climates and environments. In addition, the Network encourages people of all ages and backgrounds to observe and record phenology as a way to discover and explore the nature and pace of our dynamic world.

The National Coordinating Office (NCO) of the Network is a resource center that facilitates and encourages widespread collection, integration, and sharing of phenology data and related information (for example, meteorological and hydrological data). The NCO develops and promotes standardized methods for field data collection and maintains several online user interfaces for data upload and download, as well as data exploration, visualization, and analysis. The NCO also facilitates basic and applied research related to phenology, the development of decision-support tools for resource managers and planners, and the design of educational and outreach materials and programs.

Phenology and population size of the yellow-bellied marmot are sensitive to climate variation in Colorado. Photograph by Abraham Miller-Rushing, National Park Service.

Getting Involved

Observers Collecting Phenology Data

Both professional and “citizen” scientists are encouraged by the Network to collect observations of plant and animal phenology and to report them through Nature’s Notebook, an online user interface for data entry and visualization. Contemporary data collected through Nature’s Notebook and some of our partner projects are integrated and used to inform decisionmaking in a variety of contexts, including agriculture, drought monitoring, and wildfire risk assessment. Phenological information is also critical for the management of wildlife, invasive species, and agricultural pests, and for understanding and managing risks to human health and welfare, including allergies, asthma, and vector-borne diseases. Visit the Network’s website to learn more and sign up to become an observer.

Discovering and Organizing Historical Datasets

Because phenological changes can take decades to detect, the Network also seeks to find and share historical phenology datasets. These valuable data sources can range from records of migratory duck arrivals to a backyard pond to oral histories of when to plant vegetables. For example, Aldo Leopold, Thomas Jefferson, and Lewis and Clark all recorded phenology information in their diaries or record books. Scientists have recently used phenological information collected by Henry David Thoreau to examine patterns of change in plant phenology in areas around Concord, Massachusetts (see “Survival Secret— Flexible Phenology” sidebar). If you have or know about a historical dataset, consider submitting basic information about it to the Network dataset registry tool on our website.

Building Effective Partnerships

Partners

The Network is a group of partners and collaborators, including scientists, educators, natural resource managers, public agencies, nongovernmental organizations, specialized monitoring or science networks, and Native American tribes working together to collect, interpret, and use phenology data and related information. Effective partnerships are critical to the success of the Network. If your organization, agency, or program is interested in working with us, please visit our website or contact us directly. We are enthusiastic to collaborate with educators, researchers, and citizen scientist networks, as well as Federal, state, and local organizations.

A Key Partner—The Great Sunflower Project

The Great Sunflower Project, a citizen science initiative based at San Francisco State University, is one of the Network’s many beneficial partnerships. Participants in the Great Sunflower Project monitor and record bee visitation to sunflowers planted in their gardens. They are also encouraged to record the phenology of their sunflowers as they emerge from the soil, produce leaves, and flower. Plant and bee phenology data collected jointly through this partnership generate important information that contributes to our understanding of the relationships between plants and their pollinators.

Survival Secret—Flexible Phenology

When researchers returned to Henry David Thoreau’s journals and searched for the plants he had observed 150 years ago, they found that many of the species had declined or disappeared entirely from Walden Pond and the town of Concord, Massachusetts. Researchers found that the surviving species had one thing in common: their flowering times tracked the warming temperatures observed over the past 150 years. Conservation and management have traditionally focused on the geographic distributions of plants and animals, but emerging research shows that the timing of life cycle events may be equally important for predicting responses to climate change and informing management practices.

Through the Seasons

Phenology is a great way to teach students and learners of all ages about the life cycles of plants and animals and to create a tangible understanding of climate change. For example, Network partners in southern California have established over a dozen phenology observation gardens and are recording times of leaf emergence, flowering, fruiting, and seed dispersal. These gardens are funded and managed by diverse organizations such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and several nature centers. The NCO facilitates the development of partnerships like these, and it supports them by providing the blueprint for the observation gardens as well as the scientific framework for collecting phenology data. Participating students interact with undergraduate students and researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and can compare their results to long-term historical records like those kept in herbarium collections. This project not only provides an opportunity for students to learn more about plants and animals, but it also allows them to gain an understanding about climate change and what it means to be a scientist.

Our Cooperators

www.usanpn.org nco@usanpn.org

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