Phenology
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Phenology is the study of periodic events in
biological life cycle In biology, a biological life cycle (or just life cycle or lifecycle when the biological context is clear) is a series of changes in form that an organism undergoes, returning to the starting state. "The concept is closely related to those of the ...
s and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leaves and flowers, the first flight of butterflies, the first appearance of migratory birds, the date of leaf colouring and fall in deciduous trees, the dates of egg-laying of birds and amphibia, or the timing of the developmental cycles of temperate-zone honey bee colonies. In the scientific literature on ecology, the term is used more generally to indicate the time frame for any seasonal biological phenomena, including the dates of last appearance (e.g., the seasonal phenology of a species may be from April through September). Because many such phenomena are very sensitive to small variations in climate, especially to temperature, phenological records can be a useful proxy for temperature in historical climatology, especially in the study of
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
and global warming. For example, viticultural records of grape harvests in Europe have been used to reconstruct a record of summer growing season temperatures going back more than 500 years. In addition to providing a longer historical baseline than instrumental measurements, phenological observations provide high temporal resolution of ongoing changes related to global warming.


Etymology

The word is derived from the Greek φαίνω (''phainō''), "to show, to bring to light, make to appear" + λόγος ('' logos''), amongst others "study, discourse, reasoning" and indicates that phenology has been principally concerned with the dates of first occurrence of biological events in their annual cycle. The term was first used by
Charles François Antoine Morren Charles François Antoine Morren (3 March 1807 in Ghent – 17 December 1858 in Liège), was a Belgian botanist and horticulturist, and Director of the ''Jardin botanique de l’Université de Liège''. Morren taught physics at Ghent University b ...
, a professor of Botany at the University of Liège (
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
). Morren was a student of Adolphe Quetelet. Quetelet made plant phenological observations at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels. He is considered "one of 19th century trendsetters in these matters." In 1839 he started his first observations and created a network over Belgium and Europe that reached a total of about 80 stations in the period 1840-1870. Morren participated in 1842 and 1843 in Quetelets 'Observations of Periodical Phenomena' (Observations des Phénomènes périodiques),First published: ; this publications was followed by yearly publications until 1864. See also: and at first suggested to mention the observations concerning botanical phenomena 'anthochronological observations'. That term had already been used in 1840 by Carl Joseph Kreutzer. But 16 December 1849 Morren used the term 'phenology' for the first time in a public lecture at the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels,. See also ww.meteo.be/meteo/download/fr/4224538/pdf/rmi_scpub-1300.pdf for supplementary materials to describe “the specific science which has the goal to know the ‘’manifestation of life ruled by the time’’.”Morren 1849/1851, as cited in . It would take four more years before Morren first published “phenological memories”. That the term was not really common in the decades to follow may be shown by an article in '' The Zoologist'' of 1899. The article describes an ornithological meeting in Sarajevo, where 'questions of Phaenology' were discussed. A footnote by the Editor, William Lucas Distant, says: “This word is seldom used, and we have been informed by a very high authority that it may be defined as "Observational Biology," and as applied to birds, as it is here, may be taken to mean the study or science of observations on the appearance of birds.”’Ornithological meeting at Serajevo, Bosnia,’ in: '' The Zoologist,'' 4th series, vol 3 (1899), page 511.


Records


Historical

Observations of phenological events have provided indications of the progress of the natural calendar since ancient agricultural times. Many cultures have traditional phenological proverbs and sayings which indicate a time for action: "When the sloe tree is white as a sheet, sow your barley whether it be dry or wet" or attempt to forecast future climate: "If oak's before ash, you're in for a splash. If ash before oak, you're in for a soak". But the indications can be pretty unreliable, as an alternative version of the rhyme shows: "If the oak is out before the ash, 'Twill be a summer of wet and splash; If the ash is out before the oak, 'Twill be a summer of fire and smoke." Theoretically, though, these are not mutually exclusive, as one forecasts immediate conditions and one forecasts future conditions. The
North American Bird Phenology Program The North American Bird Phenology Program houses a unique and largely forgotten collection of six million Migration Observer Cards that illuminate migration patterns and population status of the birds of North America. These handwritten cards cont ...
at USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (PWRC) is in possession of a collection of millions of bird arrival and departure date records for over 870 species across North America, dating between 1880 and 1970. This program, originally started by
Wells W. Cooke Wells Woodbridge Cooke (25 January 1858 – 30 March 1916), was an American ornithologist who was called the “father of cooperative study of bird migration in America”. Cooke was the fifth child (of nine) and the eldest son of Rev. Elisha Wo ...
, involved over 3,000 observers including many notable naturalists of the time. The program ran for 90 years and came to a close in 1970 when other programs starting up at PWRC took precedence. The program was again started in 2009 to digitize the collection of records and now with the help of citizens worldwide, each record is being transcribed into a database which will be publicly accessible for use. The English naturalists Gilbert White and William Markwick reported the seasonal events of more than 400 plant and animal species, Gilbert White in Selborne, Hampshire and William Markwick in
Battle, Sussex Battle is a small town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the local government district of Rother District, Rother in East Sussex, England. It lies south-east of London, east of Brighton and east of Lewes. Hastings is to the sout ...
over a 25-year period between 1768 and 1793. The data, reported in White's ''
Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne ''The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne'', or just ''The Natural History of Selborne'' is a book by English parson-naturalist Gilbert White (1720–1793). It was first published in 1789 by his brother Benjamin. It has been continuou ...
''White, G (1789) The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne are reported as the earliest and latest dates for each event over 25 years; so annual changes cannot therefore be determined. In Japan and China the time of blossoming of cherry and peach trees is associated with ancient festivals and some of these dates can be traced back to the eighth century. Such historical records may, in principle, be capable of providing estimates of climate at dates before instrumental records became available. For example, records of the harvest dates of the
pinot noir Pinot Noir () is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words for ''pine'' and ''black.' ...
grape in
Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
have been used in an attempt to reconstruct spring–summer temperatures from 1370 to 2003; the reconstructed values during 1787–2000 have a correlation with Paris instrumental data of about 0.75.


Modern


Great Britain

Robert Marsham, the founding father of modern phenological recording, was a wealthy landowner who kept systematic records of "Indications of spring" on his estate at Stratton Strawless, Norfolk, from 1736. These took the form of dates of the first occurrence of events such as flowering, bud burst, emergence or flight of an insect. Generations of Marsham's family maintained consistent records of the same events or "phenophases" over unprecedentedly long periods of time, eventually ending with the death of Mary Marsham in 1958, so that trends can be observed and related to long-term climate records. The data show significant variation in dates which broadly correspond with warm and cold years. Between 1850 and 1950 a long-term trend of gradual climate warming is observable, and during this same period the Marsham record of oak-leafing dates tended to become earlier. After 1960 the rate of warming accelerated, and this is mirrored by increasing earliness of oak leafing, recorded in the data collected by Jean Combes in Surrey. Over the past 250 years, the first leafing date of oak appears to have advanced by about 8 days, corresponding to overall warming on the order of 1.5 °C in the same period. Towards the end of the 19th century the recording of the appearance and development of plants and animals became a national pastime, and between 1891 and 1948 the Royal Meteorological Society (RMS) organised a programme of phenological recording across the British Isles. Up to 600 observers submitted returns in some years, with numbers averaging a few hundred. During this period 11 main plant phenophases were consistently recorded over the 58 years from 1891–1948, and a further 14 phenophases were recorded for the 20 years between 1929 and 1948. The returns were summarised each year in the Quarterly Journal of the RMS as ''
The Phenological Reports ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
''. Jeffree (1960) summarised the 58 years of data, which show that flowering dates could be as many as 21 days early and as many as 34 days late, with extreme earliness greatest in summer-flowering species, and extreme lateness in spring-flowering species. In all 25 species, the timings of all phenological events are significantly related to temperature, indicating that phenological events are likely to get earlier as climate warms. ''The Phenological Reports'' ended suddenly in 1948 after 58 years, and Britain remained without a national recording scheme for almost 50 years, just at a time when climate change was becoming evident. During this period, individual dedicated observers made important contributions. The naturalist and author
Richard Fitter Richard Sidney Richmond Fitter (1 March 1913 – 3 September 2005) was a British naturalist and author. He was an expert on wildflowers and authored several guides for amateur naturalists. Life Fitter was born in London, England, on 1 March 191 ...
recorded the First Flowering Date (FFD) of 557 species of British flowering plants in Oxfordshire between about 1954 and 1990. Writing in ''Science'' in 2002, Richard Fitter and his son
Alistair Fitter Alastair Hugh Fitter CBE FRS (born 20 June 1948) is a British ecologist at the University of York. Fitter was educated at Oxford and at Liverpool, and came to the Department of Biology in York in 197In 2004 he was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor, ...
found that "the average FFD of 385 British plant species has advanced by 4.5 days during the past decade compared with the previous four decades." They note that FFD is sensitive to temperature, as is generally agreed, that "150 to 200 species may be flowering on average 15 days earlier in Britain now than in the very recent past" and that these earlier FFDs will have "profound ecosystem and evolutionary consequences". In Scotland,
David Grisenthwaite David Grisenthwaite from Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, United Kingdom, is an amateur phenological data recorder. Since 1984 he has meticulously recorded the dates he has mowed his lawn. When his data was discovered by meteorologists it was hailed as a ...
meticulously recorded the dates he mowed his lawn since 1984. His first cut of the year was 13 days earlier in 2004 than in 1984, and his last cut was 17 days later, providing evidence for an earlier onset of spring and a warmer climate in general. National recording was resumed by Tim Sparks in 1998 and, from 2000, has been led by
citizen science Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...
project Nature's Calenda

run by the Woodland Trust and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Latest research shows that oak bud burst has advanced more than 11 days since the 19th century and that resident and migrant birds are unable to keep up with this change.


Continental Europe

In Europe, phenological networks are operated in several countries, e.g. Germany's national meteorological service operates a very dense network with approx. 1200 observers, the majority of them on a voluntary basis. Th
Pan European Phenology
(PEP) project is a database that collects phenological data from European countries. Currently 32 European meteorological services and project partners from across Europe have joined and supplied data. In Geneva,
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, the opening of the first leaf of an official chestnut tree (an horse chestnut) has been observed and recorded since 1818, thus forming the oldest set of records of phenological events in Switzerland. This task is conducted by the secretary of the Grand Council of Geneva (the local parliament), and the opening of the first leaf is announced publicly as indicating the beginning of the Spring. Data show a trend during the 20th century towards an opening that happens earlier and earlier.


Other countries

There is a USA National Phenology Networ

in which both professional scientists and lay recorders participate. Many other countries such as Canada (Alberta Plantwatc

and Saskatchewan PlantWatch), China and Australia also have phenological programs. In eastern North America, almanacs are traditionally used for information on action phenology (in agriculture), taking into account the astronomical positions at the time. William Felker has studied phenology in Ohio, US, since 1973 and now publishes "Poor Will's Almanack", a phenological almanac for farmers (not to be confused with a late 18th-century almanac by the same name). In the
Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...
s of South America, the timing of leaf production and abscission has been linked to rhythms in gross primary production at several sites. Early in their lifespan, leaves reach a peak in their capacity for photosynthesis, and in tropical evergreen forests of some regions of the Amazon basin (particularly regions with long dry seasons), many trees produce more young leaves in the dry season, seasonally increasing the photosynthetic capacity of the forest.


Airborne sensors

Recent technological advances in studying the earth from space have resulted in a new field of phenological research that is concerned with observing the phenology of whole ecosystems and stands of vegetation on a global scale using proxy approaches. These methods complement the traditional phenological methods which recorded the first occurrences of individual species and phenophases. The most successful of these approaches is based on tracking the temporal change of a Vegetation Index (like Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI)). NDVI makes use of the vegetation's typical low reflection in the red (red energy is mostly absorbed by growing plants for Photosynthesis) and strong reflection in the Near Infrared (Infrared energy is mostly reflected by plants due to their cellular structure). Due to its robustness and simplicity, NDVI has become one of the most popular remote sensing based products. Typically, a vegetation index is constructed in such a way that the attenuated reflected sunlight energy (1% to 30% of incident sunlight) is amplified by ratio-ing red and NIR following this equation: : \mathrm= The evolution of the vegetation index through time, depicted by the graph above, exhibits a strong
correlation In statistics, correlation or dependence is any statistical relationship, whether causal or not, between two random variables or bivariate data. Although in the broadest sense, "correlation" may indicate any type of association, in statistics ...
with the typical green vegetation growth stages (emergence, vigor/growth, maturity, and harvest/senescence). These temporal curves are analyzed to extract useful parameters about the vegetation growing season (start of season, end of season, length of
growing season A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather, ecology, and the amount of daylight. The growing season is that portion of the year in which local conditions (i.e. rainfall, temperature, daylight) permit normal plant growth. Whil ...
, etc.). Other growing season parameters could potentially be extracted, and global maps of any of these growing season parameters could then be constructed and used in all sorts of climatic change studies. A noteworthy example of the use of remote sensing based phenology is the work of Ranga Myneni from Boston University. This work showed an apparent increase in vegetation productivity that most likely resulted from the increase in temperature and lengthening of the growing season in the boreal forest. Another example based on the
MODIS The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a satellite-based sensor used for earth and climate measurements. There are two MODIS sensors in Earth orbit: one on board the Terra (EOS AM) satellite, launched by NASA in 1999 ...
enhanced vegetation index (EVI) reported by Alfredo Huete at the University of Arizona and colleagues showed that the
Amazon Rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...
, as opposed to the long-held view of a monotonous growing season or growth only during the wet rainy season, does in fact exhibit growth spurts during the dry season. However, these phenological parameters are only an approximation of the true biological growth stages. This is mainly due to the limitation of current space-based remote sensing, especially the spatial resolution, and the nature of vegetation index. A pixel in an image does not contain a pure target (like a tree, a shrub, etc.) but contains a mixture of whatever intersected the sensor's field of view.


Phenological mismatch

Most species, including both plants and animals, interact with one another within ecosystems and habitats, known as biological interactions. These interactions (whether it be plant-plant, animal-animal, predator-prey or plant-animal interactions) can be vital to the success and survival of populations and therefore species. Many species experience changes in life cycle development, migration or in some other process/behavior at different times in the season than previous patterns depict due to warming temperatures. Phenological mismatches, where interacting species change the timing of regularly repeated phases in their life cycles at different rates, creates a mismatch in interaction timing and therefore negatively harming the interaction. Mismatches can occur in many different biological interactions, including between species in one trophic level (''intratrophic'' interactions) (ie. plant-plant), between different trophic levels (''intertrophic'' interactions) (ie. plant-animal) or through creating competition (''intraguild'' interactions). For example, if a plant species blooms its flowers earlier than previous years, but the pollinators that feed on and pollinate this flower does not arrive or grow earlier as well, then a phenological mismatch has occurred. This results in the plant population declining as there are no pollinators to aid in their reproductive success. Another example includes the interaction between plant species, where the presence of one specie aids in the pollination of another through attraction of pollinators. However, if these plant species develop at mismatched times, this interaction will be negatively affected and therefore the plant species that relies on the other will be harmed. Phenological mismatches means the loss of many biological interactions and therefore ecosystem functions are also at risk of being negatively effects or lost all together. Phenological mismatches his will effect species and ecosystems food webs,
reproduction Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. Reproduction is a fundamental feature of all known life; each individual or ...
success, resource availability, population and community dynamics in future generations, and therefore evolutionary process and overall
biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity' ...
.


See also

*
Citizen science Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...
*
Nature Detectives Nature Detectives is an online phenology research and education project for 4–18-year-olds in the UK. It is run by the Woodland Trust, as part of the UK Phenology Network. Participants record the dates they see seasonal events, such as leafing, ...
* Season creep * Growing degree-day *
Biological life cycle In biology, a biological life cycle (or just life cycle or lifecycle when the biological context is clear) is a series of changes in form that an organism undergoes, returning to the starting state. "The concept is closely related to those of the ...


References


Sources

*


External links


North American Bird Phenology Program
Citizen science program to digitize bird phenology records
Project Budburst
Citizen Science for Plant Phenology in the USA
USA National Phenology Network
Citizen science and research network observations on phenology in the USA
AMC's Mountain Watch
Citizen science and phenology monitoring in the Appalachian mountains
Pan European Phenology Project PEP725
European open access database with plant phenology data sets for science, research and education
UK Nature's Calendar
UK Phenology network
DWD phenology website
Information on the plant phenological network operated by Germany's national meteorological service (DWD)
Nature's Calendar Ireland
Spring Watch & Autumn Watch
Naturewatch: A Canadian Phenology project

Spring Alive Project
Phenological survey on birds for children
Moj Popek
Citizen Science for Plant Phenology in Slovenia
Observatoire des Saisons
French Phenology network
Phenology
Video produced by Wisconsin Public Television
Austrian phenological network run by ZAMG
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