A primary goal of the USA-NPN is to advance science in the field of phenology. Phenology research intersects with climate science, natural resource management, remote sensing, ecology, evolutionary biology, and much more. We welcome scientists and researchers to interact with the USA-NPN. 

Resources available to researchers

• Partner with us on a collaborating project to collect data for your project. 
• Explore data resources, including observational data and gridded data.  
• Ensure that your data collection efforts can be used in a larger context by using the USA-NPN protocols independently or as part of Nature's Notebook. 
• Join one of our phenology research communities of practice. We facilitate or participate in research communities that include phenology modeling, land surface phenology and remote sensing validation, and indigenous phenology.  
• Sign up for The Leaflet, our newsletter targeted to phenology researchers!

Examples of our Research partnerships 

We work with researchers at universities and other institutions and agencies via Collaborating Projects to collect data for a specific research goal:

Shady Invaders is a Nature's Notebook campaign created in partnership with researchers at Penn State University to explore the timing of leaves on invasive and native shrubs. The goal of the project is to start to quantify Extended Leaf Phenology on a regional scale so that we can understand how or if increased shading is actually impacting deciduous forest ecosystems. 

Researchers at the University of Maryland worked to identify genes that could ensure tree survival as the climate changes, especially as spring occurs earlier and summer becomes warmer. Part of this effort included PopClock, a Nature's Notebook campaign to collect ground-based observations of spring leaf emergence and fall color change. Researchers compared these data to satellite images to create maps of “green-up” and “green-down” across large landscapes.

All Collaborating Projects

Research Publications

To date, over 100 peer-reviewed publications have used USA-NPN observational data and gridded data products.

View publications

Proposal Development

We are pleased to serve in collaborative or support roles in research proposals when the circumstances are right. If you are interested in having USA-NPN play a role in your proposed project, please contact us no less than two months before the proposal deadline. The USA-NPN requires at least one week to provide a letter of support and needs to see draft proposal text that describes our role. Proposals that use USA-NPN data or data products, focus on developing phenological models, or integrate USA-NPN observational or gridded data with land surface phenology products are of particular interest to us at this time.