UA News

A UA-based Internet database is looking for volunteers to track seasonal signs of climate change.

Volunteers across the nation are being recruited to get outdoors and help track the effects of climate on seasonal changes in plant and animal behavior.

The USA-National Phenology Network, known as USA-NPN, a consortium of government, academic and
citizen-scientists, is launching a new national program built on volunteer observations of flowering, fruiting and other seasonal events. Scientists and resource managers will use these observations to track effects of climate change on the Earth's life-support systems.

"This program is designed for people interested in participating in climate change science, not just reading about it," said USA-NPN executive director and U.S. Geological Survey scientist Jake Weltzin. "We encourage everyone to visit the Web site and then go outside and observe the marvelous cycles of plant and animal life."

Phenology is the study of the seasonal cycles of plant and animals, such as plants sprouting, flowering and fruiting, and animals reproducing, migrating and hibernating.

Changes in these patterns, caused by climate change or other factors, can significantly affect human economies and health.

In some areas, such changes have already imperiled species, such as in the disappearance of some wildflowers near Walden Pond, the Massachusetts home of 19th-century naturalist Henry David Thoreau.

Closer monitoring of the summer rains in and around Tucson will aid land managers trying to stamp out buffelgrass, an introduced plant species that threatens native vegetation and wildlife. Buffelgrass is most susceptible to herbicides just after rainfall, making it easier to control, said University of Arizona doctoral student Aaryn Olsson.

The USA-NPN monitoring program harnesses the power of people and the Internet to vastly increase the data available to scientists and the public alike, Weltzin said. The program provides easy-to-use methods to track the life cycles of nearly 200 species of plants, and will begin monitoring animals next year.

The USA-NPN, based at the UA, is built upon partnerships among citizen scientists, government agencies, nongovernment organizations, academic researchers, educators and the public.

In addition to the UA, the rapidly expanding network includes collaborations among the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Wildlife Society.

Project BudBurst, a major partner of the USA-NPN, is launching its second season of plant phenology monitoring at www.budburst.org.