Standardized phenology monitoring methods to track plant and animal activity for science and resource management applications

Abstract

Phenology offers critical insights into the responses of species to climate change; shifts in species’ phenologies can result in disruptions to the ecosystem processes and services upon which human livelihood depends. To better detect such shifts, scientists need long-term phenological records covering many taxa and across a broad geographic distribution. To date, phenological observation efforts across the USA have been geographically limited and have used different methods, making comparisons across sites and species difficult. To facilitate coordinated cross-site, cross-species, and geographically extensive phenological monitoring across the nation, the USA National Phenology Network has developed in situ monitoring protocols standardized across taxonomic groups and ecosystem types for terrestrial, freshwater, and marine plant and animal taxa. The protocols include elements that allow enhanced detection and description of phenological responses, including assessment of phenological “status”, or the ability to track presence–absence of a particular phenophase, as well as standards for documenting the degree to which phenological activity is expressed in terms of intensity or abundance. Data collected by this method can be integrated with historical phenology data sets, enabling the development of databases for spatial and temporal assessment of changes in status and trends of disparate organisms. To build a common, spatially, and temporally extensive multi-taxa phenological data set available for a variety of research and science applications, we encourage scientists, resources managers, and others conducting ecological monitoring or research to consider utilization of these standardized protocols for tracking the seasonal activity of plants and animals.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00484-014-0789-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Intra-Urban Microclimate Effects on Phenology

“…Phenology is the recurring seasonal activity of plants and animals, i.e., mating, birth, and death in animals; and germination, leaf bud burst, flowering, and fruit production in plants [1,2]. The timing of phenological stages (phenophases) varies by species, age within an individual species, local climate, and many biotic and abiotic conditions [1][2][3].…”

“…The timing of phenological stages (phenophases) varies by species, age within an individual species, local climate, and many biotic and abiotic conditions [1][2][3]. Phenology studies are numerous, most involving temporal analyses of remotely sensed images, documenting advancing start of season on broad regional or continental scales-an effect possibly related to climate change [3,4].…”

Five years of phenological monitoring in a mountain grassland: inter-annual patterns and evaluation of the sampling protocol

“…Yet, whether the suggested number of observations is sufficient to describe population phenology in a subalpine grassland is an unanswered question. Additionally, a coherent set of sampling rules and methods for phenology is strongly requested (Hudson 2010) and under recent development (Denny et al 2014).…”

Mapping Presence and Predicting Phenological Status of Invasive Buffelgrass in Southern Arizona Using MODIS, Climate and Citizen Science Observation Data

“…The south-facing slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains, which includes the Pima Canyon area, has a particularly dense and widespread buffelgrass infestation [19]. The observations were collected by a single observer (co-author Weltzin) on a near-weekly basis from July 2010 to December 2014 using standardized protocols [35]; data were archived in the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) database [36]). The visual estimates of percent greenness of up to five individual buffelgrass plants located along a south-facing slope of the trail were assessed on each day of observation (Figure 2).…”

“…All proposed locations were field checked and characterized by co-author Patrick-Birdwell, and on-site training was provided. As at the Pima Canyon site, observations followed a series of strict protocols designed to capture detailed information regarding the timing and proportion of plant green-up, flowering, fruiting, and senescence ( [35]). More information about the project can be found on the USA-NPN Tucson Phenology Trail website ( [38]); data are available from the USA-NPN database ( [39]).…”