USA National Phenology Network
Working Groups
Relevant Articles
Teaming up with Thoreau, Smithsonian Magazine, Oct. 2007
Climate Reference Network (CRN) Newsletter, NCDC NOAA, Sept. 2007
Buzzing about Climate Change, Earth Observatory NASA, Sept. 2007
Project Budburst, Become a citizen scientist as you watch flowers bloom
Announcements
Land Surface Phenology workshop
at US-IALE meeting,
8 April 2008
Archives
ASPRS and USA-NPN
Towards a Southwest Phenology Network, Southwest US Region
Oct. 5, 2007
Tucson, AZ
American Geophysical Union
B17: Observing, Analyzing, and Modeling Phenologies at Multiple Scales
Fall Meeting, Dec. 10-14, 2007
San Francisco, CA
Participate
Project BudBurst NPN Partners
Leveraging of Existing Ecological and Weather Networks
The goal for initial implementation of the USA- NPN is to establish a functional continental-scale phenological monitoring network of stations observing selected regionally appropriate native plant species and/or a nationally appropriate indicator plant (e.g., lilac).
To achieve this goal, the initial focus of partnerships is to establish relationships with organizations that already have biological monitoring as part of their mission or operational activities. Thus phenological monitoring will be an added increment of effort as opposed to a new start. The backbone network established in 2007 will be expanded in subsequent years as other cooperators become involved.
Figure adapted from CENR-OSTP
This backbone monitoring effort will be just one of four collection tiers in the eventual National Phenology Network. Other collection tiers would include observations with different foci, based on their connections to the needs of remote sensing, citizen science/education, and intensive research sites. The figure at right illustrates this approach. The tip of the pyramid represents intensive measured sites, potentially including NEON, LTER, AmeriFlux installations.
The second tier represents extensive, existing networks, potentially including NWS COOP, NPS Inventory and Monitoring, and USFS FIA sites. The third, even broader, tier represents citizen scientists and educational groups. These contributors are critically important, and the bulk of observations may come from this group.
The base of the observation pyramid represents remotely sensed data, which can provide wall-to-wall coverage, and that can extend point-based observations across the landscape.
The initial focus is to establish and record new data, followed by the integration of legacy phenological data sets. We expect the NPN web site to provide a catalog or registry of legacy data sets for users to access on a case-by-case basis. The overall data management strategy is being developed by the cyberinfrastructure working group, and more details can be found on the working group web page.
A tiered approach will be employed to provide a menu of options for how an individual field station will participate in the NPN. Field stations will be asked to select one or more species to monitor from a small pre-determined list of regionally relevant native plant species and/or a pre-determined nationally relevant indicator plant, will be given the latitude to choose one or more other native plant species from a larger list of regionally appropriate species, and will be given the opportunity to monitor and record phenological data from other species or events of individual interest.