Answer questions at multiple scales with data provided by the USA National Phenology Network

Background/Question/Methods

The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) 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.  Participants in USA-NPN’s Nature’s Notebook have contributed nearly one million observation records encompassing four years of plant phenology observations and three years of animal phenology observations.  Data are available for exploration and visualization at www.usanpn.org/results/visualizations  and for download at www.usanpn.org/results/data.

Participants in Nature’s Notebook, who include naturalists and professional scientists, follow vetted protocols that employ phenological “status” monitoring rather than “event” monitoring. On each visit to a  site, observers indicate the status of each phenophase (e.g., “breaking leaf buds” or “active individuals”) for individual plant or animal species with a ‘yes’ if the phenophase is occurring or a ‘no’ if it is not. This approach has a number of advantages over event monitoring (including estimation of error, estimation of effort, “negative” or “absence” data, capture of multiple events and phenophase duration) and is especially well-suited for integrated multi-taxa monitoring.  We demonstrate several types of questions that can be addressed with this type of data, and with this national scale observation program and database, including variability and change across space, through time, and in community level interactions.

Results/Conclusions

Patterns in the data collected by Nature’s Notebook participants are beginning to emerge demonstrating the value of this data resource.  Plant phenology is closely tracking seasonal changes in climatological variables, with spring phenophases in the northeastern US clearly showing earlier activity under warmer spring conditions.  Further patterns are emerging related to animal migration, invasive species ecology and management and species interactions.

The data housed in the National Phenology Database are expected be useful to a variety of stakeholders interested in the spatial and temporal patterns of plant activity on a national scale; through time, these data should also empower scientists, resource managers, and the public in decision-making and adaptation to variable and changing climates and environments. We encourage researchers and decision makers to take advantage of this rich new data resource.  Real-time raw and synthesized data are available from the USA-NPN website, and include documentation of methodology and QA/QC, data-use and attribution policies, and FGDC-compliant metadata.