Phenology
Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation).[1]
Examples include the date of emergence of leaves and flowers, the first flight of butterflies, the first appearance of
, 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
Etymology
The word is derived from the Greek φαίνω (phainō), "to show, to bring to light, make to appear"[6] + λόγος (logos), amongst others "study, discourse, reasoning"[7] 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, a professor of botany at the University of Liège (Belgium).[8] 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."[9] 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),[10] 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.
On 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,[11][12] to describe "the specific science which has the goal to know the manifestation of life ruled by the time."[13]
Four years later, Morren published "Phenological Memories".[14] The term may not have been common in the decades to follow, as in an article in The Zoologist of 1899 describing 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".[15]
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
The English naturalists
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
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.[20]
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 to 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. Jeffree (1960) summarised the 58 years of data,[21] 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,[22][23] 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
National recording was resumed by Tim Sparks in 1998
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.[32] The 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.[33]
In
Other countries
There is a USA National Phenology Network [3] in which both professional scientists and lay recorders participate.
Many other countries such as Canada (Alberta Plantwatch [4] and Saskatchewan PlantWatch[36]), China and Australia[37][38] also have phenological programs.
In eastern North America,
In the
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
The evolution of the vegetation index through time, depicted by the graph above, exhibits a strong correlation 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, 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
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.[52] 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.[53] Mismatches can occur in many different biological interactions, including between species in one trophic level (intratrophic interactions) (i.e. plant-plant), between different trophic levels (intertrophic interactions) (i.e. plant-animal) or through creating competition (intraguild interactions).[54] For example, if a plant species blooms its flowers earlier than previous years, but the pollinators that feed on and pollinate this flower do 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.[55] Another example includes the interaction between plant species, where the presence of one species 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
See also
References
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- ^
Meier, Nicole (2007). "Grape Harvest Records as a Proxy for Swiss April to August Temperature Reconstructions" (PDF). Diplomarbeit der Philosophisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Bern (Thesis of Philosophy and Science Faculty of the University of Bern). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-17. Retrieved 2007-12-25.
Phenological grape harvest observations in Switzerland over the last 500 years have been used as a proxy indicator for reconstructing past temperature variability.
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Phenological grape harvest observations in Switzerland over the last 500 years have been used as a proxy indicator for reconstructing past temperature variability.
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One of the preferred indicators is phenology, the science of natural recurring events, as their recorded dates provide a high-temporal resolution of ongoing changes.
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SI first leaf dates, measuring change in the start of 'early spring' (roughly the time of shrub budburst and lawn first greening), are getting earlier in nearly all parts of the Northern Hemisphere. The average rate of change over the 1955–2002 period is approximately -1.2 days per decade.
- ^ φαίνω, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
- ^ λόγος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
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- OCLC 460607426; this publications was followed by yearly publications until 1864. See also: Demarée, Gaston R. (2009). "The Phenological Observations and Networking of Adolphe Quetelet at the Royal Observatory of Brussels"(PDF). Italian Journal of Agrometeorology. 14 (1). Retrieved 2019-05-20.
- ^ Demarée & Rutishauser 2011, p. 756.
- .. See also [www.meteo.be/meteo/download/fr/4224538/pdf/rmi_scpub-1300.pdf for supplementary materials].
- ^ Morren 1849/1851, as cited in Demarée & Rutishauser 2011, p. 758.
- ^ Morren, Charles (1853). "Souvenirs phénologiques de l'hiver 1852-1853" ("Phenological memories of the winter 1852-1853")". Bulletin de l'Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (in French). XX (1): 160-186. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
- ^ ’Ornithological meeting at Serajevo, Bosnia,’ in: The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899), page 511.
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- ^ *"David's lawn mower and global warming". Fife Today. 1 September 2005. Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
- ^ "A brief history of phenology - Nature's Calendar".
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Sources
- Demarée, Gaston R; Rutishauser, This (2011). "From "Periodical Observations" to "Anthochronology" and "Phenology" – the scientific debate between Adolphe Quetelet and Charles Morren on the origin of the word "Phenology"" (PDF). International Journal of Biometeorology. 55 (6): 753–761. S2CID 1486224. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2020-12-04. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
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 Archived 2016-04-14 at the Wayback Machine 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 Archived 2021-01-28 at the Wayback Machine 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