Phenology Workshop
Science Breakout (Tuesday Afternoon)
Native and Indicator Plants
Initial Criteria ideas:
1. Plants that are easy to find
2. Sharp phenophases
3. Ecological significance
4. Inclusion of invasive species phenology
5. Use of collections and herbariums
6. Connection to weather stations
7. Seedling emergence (other parts of plant life cycles)
8. Applications related to allergy connections
9. List of plants that are responsive to cues other than temperature (photoperiod, etc. for
comparisons)
What kind of species are candidates? Native, agricultural crops (hort & field crops)
Effects of other components (drought, nitrogen deposition, ozone pollution, etc.) on fall
phenologies
Fairly large geographic range will be important for all species
In the south spring blooming may be less important than other events
Widespread ornamentals may be useful
Dogwood may be affected by pests in many southern areas
Would be interesting to get “source area” phenology for plants to compare to
We need to balance the number of plants in each region, and need to keep the diversity
to native species
There are species not well-know to the public that data exists for, needs to be included in
some way, so that this source is not neglected. Useful because grants in (long-term
research in environmental biology) have to have at least 5 years of data to get further
funding. Also need to see species observed at LTER sites. Look at functional groups
(e.g. Riparian water flowers which can address hydrology) for the larger regions.
Need to have more than 5-6 plants to make sure that we have enough data to cover all
useful issues (plants may be lost to insects or disease). What events can be the “canary in
the mine) that may be indicators of potential drastic change.
Using the media as a way to recruit additional data collection sites. Giant Ragweed, due
to the connection to allergies, might be important, also with the connection to agriculture.
How will the species be reacted to by the media/public
Have to think about species that can be easily identified by the public? Might a picture
be submitted to ensure proper identification. For example, high-bush blueberries.
Existing networks—Monarch watch, interested in milkweeds are host plants. Are there
other groups that might be “turned” to a phenological interest.
“Roadside” plants attract people’s attention.
State highway departments are planting wildflowers. However, this may be a very
disturbed environment (lots of snow on roadside in spring will delay flowering).
Herbaria have an on-line catalog of all herbarium collections in the USA. Can be queried
to see how much of a particular species are found in the collections. Actually too much
data is taken, not too little. Most of the data is digitized and can always be done with
funding. The herbaria are eager for new uses for this data. Most are easily identified as
to their phenological state. We could get a detailed list that will give much information.
There is a study looking at a non-native flower in the eastern USA that showed useful
results. Herbariums specimens 1880-1920 intensive, lots of drop off since WWII.
Apparently there are a number of specimens still being taken.
May make sense to find out what species were heavily sampled/observed in the past. If
you have a big enough sampling size, errors can be accounted for. Collections that have
been focused on are flowering or leaf-out. May be useful to look at things like “peak
color”.
We need to look at the fall phenology as well. Fall is more complex. May need more
sites. Can be many effects based on a variety of factors. Need to look much more
closely at factors causing fall senescense. There is a shift in the fall, which is different
than spring. Perhaps, fast leaf-dropping species may be best. Oak is poor, maple is fast
but complex.
German studies may not have looked at connections between other factors that
temperature and precip. In fall phenol data.
Leaf fall in Colorado is mainly caused by wind, which makes it problematic to observe.
Need to assess/control for connections to pollinators, etc.
Does the plants have a horticultural cultivar (but this can lead to confusions). Age of the
individual may be important to look at native plant (don’t want switching from year to
year).
Botanical gardens may be useful sites.
Look at specific individual plants or a list of reports from what people have?
Look at names of specific plants and approaches to identify plants. Are there other
species paid to particular species (peach trees in the south, sugar maple in northeastadvantage of connection to sap flow).
What about corn and wheat? What are the challenges to add these crops to NPN?
Cultivars are changing all the time. Look at the unique data sets created on university
campuses as a starting point. Flowering, anthesis, silking, etc. would be events.
There are some standard wheat crops used.
Criteria may be that variety, date planted, etc.
For crops, need a multiple-year period of record, same cultural practices, fertilization
records, tillage records, leaves appearing at critical times for plant: emergence, stand
appearance, silking and tassling, black-layer (kernels have ceased grain fill in field corn).
Fall is also problematic for crop phenology.
Haven’t been standard crop data collected at all sites. Possible homework assignment—
what data sets are available for continuation? Identify what is out there. Could create a
phenotype that is very responsive to certain environmental cues.
Will be a challenge to find a specific crop varietal to observe at all sites.
What will phenology data of crops add to what is already know.
What is the connection to weed phenology in crops? Phenology of weeds controls the
management decisions for organic crops in many cases. Interest in pathogens—soybean
rust.
Crop models are actually very simple, despite input complexities. Phenology is a
dominant factor that is not well explored or handled in future climate scenarios.
Forest development models have similar problems. They both “spin-up” too fast and
obscure later development stages.
What about other agricultural crops (horticultural crops)?
Want native species that are widespread, indicators like lilacs, hort. and ag. species, and
other species of opportunities related to particular user groups.
Have a hierarchy in each region. Crop species (papaya in Hawaii) would have a lot of
interest.
One criteria to use might be to be sure to represent all major clades (evolutionary groups),
pollination types, connections to fungi of particular species. No shortage of information
on how to make these decisions.
Zones 4, 6, and 8 had less input than others in NPN prototype species selection.
SEEK is a project to create metadata for the LTER sites, being planned for
implementation soon.
Handout of species for several areas (from Julio collaborators) compared to earlier NPN
Ecoregions. What scale of observations?
What about using invasive species phenology?
Could you get school children looking at transects in cities. More C02 effects on
phenology could be documented to look at future changes.
What are the responses of the plants to climate change? Ones with more narrow range
may be more sensitive to climate change, and thus more useful to monitor.
It is not impossible to compare different species in different regions if functional
connections are known.
Exotic species (dandelions, milkweed, wild radish)
Conifer species have a sharp phenophase related to pollen shedding
Red maple, aspen, cherries, etc. show good color change.
Oak phenology may be difficult to collect (masting). First bloom is hard to identify in
Oak as well.
Oak pollen is not broken down by species.
Birch phenology is related to hydrology.
Insect phenology related to crop stages? Microbiology root phenology?
Can tie into groups that can help (bird arrivals data?). Every state Audubon society does
have information of dates of birds species arrivals. Hummingbird watches.
What are the differences of gardeners versus farmers growing crops in fields? Unsure,
much complexities.
Animal and insect data?
Looking at ecotones (species at the edges of their distributional zones)? Could look
along altitudinal gradients?
Aquatic environments, fly hatches
Elizabeth described the criteria used for the NPN prototype list. (refer to her list)
Species list approach:
Develop checkoff list for each one and (follow Elisabeth’s procedure).