Recent Applications of Continental-Scale Phenology Data for Science, Conservation and Resource Management

The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN; www.usanpn.org) serves science and society by promoting a broad understanding of plant and animal phenology and the relationships among phenological patterns and all aspects of... [ view full abstract ]

The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN; www.usanpn.org) serves science and society by promoting a broad understanding of plant and animal phenology and the relationships among phenological patterns and all aspects of environmental change. The National Phenology Database, maintained by the USA-NPN, is experiencing steady growth in the number of data records it houses; these data are now being used in a number of applications for science, conservation and resource management. The majority of the data in the database has been provided by volunteers, or “citizen scientists,” participating in the USA-NPN national-scale, multi-taxa phenology observation program Nature’s Notebook. In fact, between 2008 and August 2014, the 3,687 active participants registered with Nature’s Notebook have contributed over 3.8 million observation records for plants and animals, including historical lilac and honeysuckle data that date back to 1954. This presentation will demonstrate several types of questions that can be addressed by engaging citizen scientists in a standardized national monitoring system focused on field observations of biodiversity. Because the proof is often in the pudding, we will feature a diversity of recently published studies, but will also highlight several new and ongoing local- to continental-scale projects. Projects include continental bioclimatic indices, regional assessments of historical and potential future trends in phenology, sub-regional assessments of temperate deciduous forest response to recent variability in spring-time heat accumulation, state- and management unit- level foci on spatio-temporal variation in organismal activity at both the population and community level, and local monitoring for invasive species detection across platforms from ground to satellite. Additional data-mining and exploration by interested researchers and/or resource managers will likely further demonstrate the value of these data. The bottom line is that “citizen science” represents a viable approach to collect data across spatiotemporal scales often unattainable to research scientists under typical resource constraints.