Network Planning: Plenary Synthesis Session (Thursday PM)
-Goals of the afternoon session- identify critical tasks and, if possible, assign people to
these tasks
-Format for afternoon… Synthesis Reports ~ 10 min; audience will help develop the list
of critical tasks; followed by general discussion on implementation
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Focus Area: Implementation
-Group approach focused on the development of text for final report
Sub-topic: Funding
-Group tried to lay out base assumptions for funding:
1. Based on 4-tiered network design
2. Overarching structure (example might be NEON inc.)
-suggests that this organization be connected to a host university
-Activities needed to attract funding
-must tap into wide array of funding sources/types
-NPN organization/office must be able to pursue multiple funding types
-Possible sources of funding range from Fed. agencies to foundations and NGOs
-suggested that foundations and commercial enterprises are likely to be very
important sources of funding
-NPN must develop its mission in a way that will further the goals/interests of real and
potential funding sources
Sub-topic: Interagency Agreements
-Recognizes that interagency agreements will be key for the development and
maintenance of NPN
-Divides Interagency Agreements into two broad categories:
1. short-term agreements (letters of support or cooperation)
2. long-term agreements (more formal, MOUs, basis for institutional operation)
Sub-topic: Education
-Phenology as a component of life-long learning
-Target audiences include K-12, university students and the general public
-Phenological education and outreach materials must be adapted to target audience
-Examples: could range from grade-school teaching materials to grad. courses where
biologists or even engineers use phenology data to address issues in ecology, global
change, etc.
-would emphasize connections between different educational communities
-“Phenology is your neighborhood nature clock, watch it and use it”
Sub-topic: Applications
-Wanted to emphasize that phenology relates to many (all?) aspects of people’s daily
lives
-Relevance esp. to health and environment
-Stressed connection to nature
-General advice for approaching agencies- think about timing; focus on how phenology is
relevant to people’s live; make sure you document interest in and applications of
phenology;
General Comments to Group- Bruce Hayden and Julio Betancourt
- How to generalize the implementation plan for NPN?
1. stress that phenology is an important but often ignored component of environmental
science.
2. stress benefits to multiple agencies and aspects of society
3. develop a foundation for coordination among agencies, feds. and private sectors
-Passing of Seasons is the strongest manifestation of climate’s influence on natural
systems.
------------------------------------------------------------------------Focus Area: Network Structure
-Group strategy: reviewed the reports of other groups and, based on these ideas, refined
the structure for the network
Proposed Structure for the NPN: The Central Office
-Two parts: central staff and science advisory board
1. Personnel in the National Office
- Manager
- Observer support staffer
- financial development staff
- communications support (PR)
-Where to house the office? University or hybrid approach combining NGOs and
universities
2. Science comm. structure/make up?
-regional PIs or expertise?
-all members interface with the NPN program/office manager
-Timing of launch will be key… must be “online” in time to make/receive observations
by following spring
-Key to have information/database structure in place
-also must have PR info and educational material ready before launch
-Must be able to be a “national” network as soon as possible
-may be useful to sacrifice data quality for coverage (example: send common
lilacs rather than clones)
-Need to find plants that cover as large an area as possible (make potential for
participation wall-to-wall)
-First Year- Proof of concept at the “national” level as well as in select regional pilot
areas
-Issues: How much emphasis on monitoring vs. science in the NPN national program (or,
will the NPN support an analysis program of its own?)
-Mark Schwartz and Mike Dettinger suggest emphasis on monitoring as a
service to the scientific community (modeled after USGS streamgage program)
-Alternate View: Bill Easterling- some analysis should naturally occur under the
auspices of the national program
-John Gross- Suggests that the program include opps. for synthesis on the NCES
model
-Roger Pielke- good data will naturally produce good science, from within or
without the national NPN program
--------------------------------------------------------------------------Focus Area: Science
-Issues
- Will the research agenda be a part of or only aligned with the NPN?
-A strong scientific component must guide/inform the development of the network
(development of procedures)
-Research focus areas:
1. trends and variability
2. social and economic needs, including vulnerability and hazards
3. ecological function and structure
-Point to emphasize: a national and nested network is required to address most key
questions in phenology
-Potential framing questions:
Examples Include…. detecting the effects of climate on the biota
- how does land use affect patterns of phenology?
-how does changing atmospheric chemistry affect phenology?
-How to promote interactions among researchers?
-workshops, participation in professional meetings
-development of graduate courses/curricula
-Other possible additions to the network?
-addition of technology components
-links to social science
-need to translate science into public language (communication of research results
to public and policy makers)
-Other issues…
-need for data sharing policy
-how fast must the data enter the public domain?
-Comments
-Julio Betancourt: it would benefit the network to establish formal sections within
professional societies like ESA
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NEXT STEPS IN NETWORK DEVELOPMENT
Goal of first report: design and implementation plan for the network
-should be targeted towards agencies, esp. those that would like to participate, but
have not provided funding (e.g. NASA and NOAA)
-must be short and to the point (amenable to quick digestion within agencies and
NGOs)
Comment: how do you start the network?; send out request for proposals to begin with?
or, have researchers already involved in phenology be PIs on a start-up project?
-where does the implementation funding go?
-suggestion: start with steering committee
-seek recognition first and then attract funding?
-viewpoint (Jack Waide): non-fed agencies will likely be a key source of funding
-First political task is to designate an implementation team
-team selection needs to be fair; process needs to lend legitimacy to the
implementation team
-must be a broad-based group; must also include members from outside of the fed.
community
-Key Question from J. Betancourt: Is there any objection to the organizing committee
nominating the implementation team? (no objections given from audience)
-Organizing comm. will nominate an implementation team on Friday morning
-first task of implementation team will be to clean up and synthesize the implementation
planning document
-implementation team will then send the document out to 5-10 reviewers
-should try to get comments back by Nov. 1st
-Question: should we submit an AGU abstract?
-could a member of implementation team giving the presentation?
-Question: how should implementation plan be reviewed?
-response: broad peer review as a means to community building
-Question: should the process be more formal, detailed or independent?
-response from J. Betancourt: problem is that formal review will require too much
time
-Observation: question on ESA list-serve (value of NPN) elicited many, many responses
-Outline of Process
1. condense results of the workshop into a coherent document
2. group leaders refine the report and then…
3. select members of the community that will provide a general “review”
-Action Item for immediate attention: Implementation team writes report for EOS
-Question: Should additional action items include seeking funding for and implementing
a small pilot program?
-could be a short proposal to beef up or resume the lilac record?
-Response from Susan Mazer: NSF is very interested in combining phenol. data
with existing data (Examples: phenol. plus fire data, health data, climate data,
etc.); looking for a “poster child” for what the network can do
-Comment from Jack Waide: proof of concept projects could be a task for the
implementation team
-Mike Dettinger (comment): one potential proof of concept would be a project
linking NERON and NPN; would solidify NPN-NERON relationships; could be
fairly small-scale effort (as few as “half a dozen” sites)
-Response from J. Betancourt: could start with LTERs, Ameriflux, etc.
-Response form M. Schwartz: says that current eastern lilac network is a proof of
concept that is “ready to go” (up and running)
-Mike D.: the proof of concept must be more than just a data repository
-Dave Inouye: might be able to tap into animal networks to “get off the ground”
-no weather data, but could be interesting exercise on how to incorporate
observers from existing networks
-Question from Arnold Van Vliet: who would be the target audience for proof of
concept exercises?
-Answer from J. Betancourt: need to demonstrate that we can co-locate
NPN sites and NERON sites
-John Gross- suggests that the implementation team take on the task of picking
the “best” options for first projects/steps
-Jack Waide- supports ideas of Arnold V.V.- need to know what we are trying to
accomplish with proof of concepts before developing these projects
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------group breaks for tea…
NEXT STEPS IN NETWORK DEVELOPMENT (cont.)
Topic: Co-location with NERON sites- is it practical?
-Opinion from Roger Pielke- SCOs (state climate offices) are likely to be very
receptive to the idea of collecting phenol. data; most SCOs are very savvy- think
of climate as more than just temp. and precip., also think about crops, etc.
-SCOs are the best link to COOP observers
***action items-Suggests that we could tap into the SCOs by submitting to their
listserve
-Colorado has several existing met. networks that would be very amenable to colocation (i.e. Nolan Doeskin’s precip network)
-Comment from Bruce Hayden- SCOs are focused on outreach; often get questions like
“when to plant” etc.; natural point to link with the NPN
Topic: University education and NPN
-Comments from J. Betancourt- How do you integrate NPN and univ. education
-UK network plans to develop a list of research topics that would be appropriate
for Ms and PhD students
-Question: Could ISPE be involved?
-Answer from Dave I.- points out that ESA has a section on web page that links
education and ecology; would be good opp. to link with NPN (TIE programs;
Teaching Issues in Ecology)
-Lianhong… Comment-could link to high school science projects
-Comment-one example to link with education might be grade school pollinator
gardens
****action item-Mike D.- need to “hunt down” input from the educational
community
-Elena Sparrow- volunteered to track down the proper members of educational
community
-------------------------------General Comments/Discussion
****action item-Arnold V.V.- need to determine time schedule for funding
targeted at education
-Comment from Dave Breshears- also need to consider links with NEON
-Response from Bruce Hayden- NEON anticipates having phenol. as a “sentinel”
element (i.e. key type of monitoring within the nodes); recommends starting
recruiting process now, even though the nodes won’t be constructed for two or
three nodes; will need to determine how to tie NEON measurements (most
technological) with phenol.
-Comment from J. Betancourt- should use COREO framework (regional
framework linked to NEON development) as a way to determine; core areas of
bioregions are a good framework for the regional development of NPN
-Question from Bruce Hayden to Mark S.: how many lilac plants can you get?
how fast can you get them?
-answer from Mark S.: may need to look at common lilacs rather than
clones in the short term (lack of nursery capacity)
-further comments: need to identify appropriate species for regions
-response from J. Betancourt: could select plants based on
the COREO framework (ultilize regional experts involved
in COREO for advice)
-Comment from UK Jill: Need to put some hard $$ against the implementation
plan
***-Action item: J. Betancourt- need to select journals/outlets for NPN publicity;
submit within next six months
-ideas? (further down the line…after imp. plan is in place) Front. Ecol.
and Environ. (J.L. Betancourt); RS and Environment (Brad Reed); BAMS;
National Weather Digest; New journal for SCOs? (Roger Pielke);
AAGeography outlets (newsletter?; M. Schwartz); National Geographic?
***-Action item: need to create presentations detailing outcomes of workshop,
etc (one 20 min; one 60 min); need images, graphs, etc
-suggestion from John Gross- probably best to have presentations aimed at
both the public and scientists
-suggestion from M. Leinart- work with media outlets to time the “start
up” of the program with release of press coverage
-Ed: could pursue links between agronomy community and NPN; BUT,
best to talk with higher levels of the extension community ASAP; might
be able to tap into the lobbying power of extension comm. and agronomy
groups (will write “fact sheet” once implementation plan is in place)
-comments from J. Betancourt: could use USGS fact sheet series to
publicize the NPN (from BRD, Mapping, etc); Brad Reed might direct fact
sheet development related to NPN.
-comment from Mike D.: is there a way of getting on the radar screen of
management?
-comment from J. Betancourt: need to write letters immediately to
Western Gov. Assoc.
-comment from Bruce Hayden: NWS COOP members reported phenol.
events in the past; could be one way to emphasize the importance of
phenol. and how a network might benefit the country
-Comment from J. Betancourt: need to think about informatics; how to deal with
the data generated by the network; need to know how to archive or manage longterm data (like LTER)
-response from Barbara- efforts under way in Kansas (related to LTER)
-response from J. Gross- have staff in office that could handle many
database/informatics related issues (J. Gross has volunteered to pursue this with
staff member)
-Jack Waide- could also pursue links with NBII (volunteered to do this upon
return to Reston)
-informatics could be a sub-committee within the implementation group
-comment from Eric Post- volunteered to contribute to synthesis paper
-comment from Barbara- anticipates great interest from the botanical garden/plant
society comm. (volunteers to contact members from key botanical gardens)
-response from Suzan Mazer- problem is that botanical symposia are earmarked
for several years
-Comment from Lianjong: vol. to contact carbon flux comm. (Ameriflux group)
-Susan Mazer- vol. to contact Organization of Biol. Field stations
-Bruce Hayden- suggests contacting Jim Gosz about meeting with LTER groups
re: adding phenology to measurements
-Jill and Arnold volunteered to circulate and comment on implementation plant in Europe
-