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Introduction to the USA-NPN Native Species Observation ProgramPhenology, which is derived from the Greek word phaino meaning to show or to appear, is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events that are influenced by environmental changes, especially seasonal variations in temperature and precipitation driven by weather and climate. Sprouting and flowering of plants in the spring, leaf color changes of plants in the fall, bird migration, insect hatches, and animal hibernation are all examples of phenological events. Plants are special, highly sensitive weather instruments that integrate the combined effect of weather factors such as temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind, and sunshine in their growth response. They can be observed year after year and dates recorded when certain growth stages, such as opening of leaf buds or appearance of first flowers occur. Recently, phenology has been identified as a crucial contributor to global change research (Schwartz 1994,1998; Schwartz et al. 2006). Understanding the interaction between the atmosphere (weather and climate) and the biosphere (living organisms) is a necessary part of efforts to improve models of Earth's physical systems and monitor the impact of global climate change. The USA-NPN Native Species Observation Program is being initiated in order to provide observers with a selection of native plants in their region of the country (click here to view an ecoregion map) that are representative of the local/regional flora, but also abundant enough to make them easy to identify and observe. Observations of representative native plants over large geographical regions are a vital source of information for comparison with satellite measurements and indicator plant phenology (Zhao and Schwartz 2003). Just as continuous and widely distributed weather observations have led to increased knowledge of atmospheric phenomena, so too will these phenological observations contribute to an active understanding of biospheric functions. Your yearly observations are an important part of the USA National Phenological Network (USA-NPN) and Global Phenological Monitoring (GPM) efforts. ReferencesSchwartz, M. D. 1998. Green-wave phenology. Nature 394: 839-840. Schwartz, M. D. 1994. Monitoring Global Change with Phenology: The Case of the Spring Green Wave. International Journal of Biometeorology 38(1): 18-22. Schwartz, M. D., R. Ahas, and A. Aasa. 2006. Onset of Spring Starting Earlier Across the Northern Hemisphere. Global Change Biology 12(2): 343-351. Zhao T. and M. D. Schwartz. 2003. Examining the Onset of Spring in Wisconsin. Climate Research 24: 59-70. |
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