The USA-National Phenology Network
Tracking the phenological response of
plants, animals, and landscapes across the
nation
Kathryn Thomas, USGS SBSC
Jake Weltzin, USGS
Phenology – Timing is Everything!
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Primary productivity
Trophic relationships
Species interactions
Species movements
Human activities
Photo David Inouye
Applications
• Education
• Science
• Predictive services
• Health
• Resource mgmt
• Conservation
• Agriculture
• Ecosystem
services
• Recreation
Assessments of vulnerability and resilience
Change in population
Increasing
+
0
Decreasing
Change in phenology
Willis et al. 2008 PNAS
Willis et al. 2010 PLOS Biology
“Phenology…is perhaps the simplest process
in which to track changes in the ecology of
species in response to climate change.”
(IPCC 2007)
A new data resource—a national network of
integrated phenological observations across
space and time
Key Goal
Understand how plants, animals and landscapes
respond to environmental variation and climate
change
Core functions
• Develop a national phenology monitoring system
• Develop a national phenology information
management system
• Develop partnerships for implementation
• Conduct and facilitate education and outreach
• Facilitate phenology research
• Facilitate development of decision support tools
a project of USA-NPN
• 250+ plant species
• 158+ animal species
Core functions: national phenology monitoring system
species
Phenology Monitoring Methods
Leaf out
Flowering
Event
Status
Day of
year
Fruiting
Event monitoring dataset
Emerging
growth
Unfolded
leaves
Y
Y
Y
All leaves
withered
Open
flowers
Y
Y
Ripe fruits
Day of year
Status monitoring dataset
Emerging
growth
N?NNYYYNNN????N???????
Unfolded
leaves
N??NNYYYYYY????YYYYY???
All leaves
withered
N??NN??NNNN????NNYYYY
Open
flowers
???NN??NNNYYNNYYYYYNN
Ripe fruits
???NN??NNNNNNNNYYYNN
Day of year
Phenology Monitoring Methods
Leaf out
Flowering
Event
Status
Status &
Abundance
Day of year
Fruiting
What do the protocols look like?
• Event
– When did you see the first unfolded leaf? (date)
• Status
– Do you see unfolded leaves? (Y N ?)
• Status & Abundance
– Do you see unfolded leaves? (Y N ?)
– If Y, are they
– 25% of full size?
– 50% of full size?
– 75% of full size?
– 95-100% of full size?
What do the protocols look like?
• Event
– When did you hear the first frog call? (date)
• Status
– Do you hear a frog calling? (Y N ?)
• Status & Abundance
– Do you hear a frog calling? (Y N ?)
– If Y, are they
– Non-overlapping calls?
Picture courtesy Geoffrey A.
Hammerson
– Overlapping with distinguishable
individuals?
– A full chorus—constant, overlapping calls?
Core functions: national phenology information management system
Vision for the Information Management System
Data
Contemporary
Legacy
User interface
Data curation
Databases
Partners
Metadata
Ancillary
Products
Search
Search
Synthesis
Basic Data
Output
Visualizations
Research
WorkBasic
platform
Visualizations
Datasets
Education
Decision
support
Legacy Data
• North American Bird
Phenology Program
– 1880-1970
– 6 million cards
– First arrivals, peaks
and last seen dates
– Online transcription
• Data set registry tool
(www.usanpn.org/dataset-guidelines)
www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bpp/
Core functions: partnerships
•
The Collaboration
Five Park Networks
Two Research Learning Centers
Coordination
– CA-CESU Research Coordinator
– UC Santa Barbara Phenology
Stewardship Project
– USA-National Phenology Network
National Coordinating Office
CA-CESU
Klamath
San Francisco Bay
Sierra
Mediterranean
Pacific Coast SLC
Mojave
CA Mediterranean RLC
Education and Outreach
The Great
Sunflower Project
Ross Franklin, AP
Core functions: Education and outreach
Juniper Pollen Project: Modeling
pollen release and concentrations
for improved decision support for
human health related to asthma
NCEAS Working Group: Forecasting Phenology:
Integrating Ecology, Climatology, and Phylogeny to
Understand Plant Response to Climate Change
Land
Surface/Biophysical
Integrated monitoring
• Plants and Animals
• Weather/environmental
• Remote sensing
• Multi-level scaling
Core functions: Research and Decision Support
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www.usanpn.org
The Great Sunflower Project
The Great Sunflower Project