This section should have the heading "PhenoFacts: Examples in Phenology." It should have an interactive slideshow with each of the following paragraphs having its own slide. Where a fact has a citation, it can be included in small print at the bottom of the paragraph.
Maple syrup is produced by boiling sap from the maple tree in northern states and canadian provinces. This sap can only be collected for a few days each spring when day time temperatures are above freezing and night time temperatures are below freezing. How do you think climate change will impact maple syrup production and why?
Understanding phenology requires a lot of data collected over a long time in many places. This makes it difficult for some things to become known. Many topics like this require government programs or citizen science to understand. Citizen Science, sometimes called community science, is a way of answering questions that require data such as this. The National Phenology Network (NPN) runs a program like this called Nature’s Notebook. People can become trained observers, and collect data for Nature’s Notebook. Take a few minutes to explore the NPN’s website here. What type of questions could you answer with NPN data?
Shifts in phenology do not always follow the pattern you might predict. The Unita Ground Squirrel in the Western United States for Instance has not shifted when it emerges from hibernation despite the warming that has occurred (Falvo et al., 2019). Hibernating during warm temperatures requires more energy than hibernating in cold temperatures. This increases the risk of running out of energy storage before emerging for the year. This is particularly hard on older individuals, and reduces the life expectancy of individuals. Species that have a harder time adjusting their phenology will have a harder time adapting to climate change. What questions do you have about the unpredictable nature of phenology, or about the mechanisms that control when hibernating animals wake up?
Falvo, C. A., Koons, D. N., & Aubry, L. M. (2019). Seasonal climate effects on the survival of a hibernating mammal. Ecology and Evolution, 9(7), 3756–3769. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5000
You can use a tool called PhenoWatch to learn about the phenology of several types of trees using your own as well as NPN data. In PhenoWatch, you submit your own phenology observations of species, date, location, and phenophase, then and graph the phenology of that species. What question would you ask about the phenology of leafing or flowering in a tree species that is found near school?
There are festivals scheduled every year to coincide with phenological events. As the phenology has shifted with climate change, many of these events have had to be shifted to different dates on the calendar. In fact, the cherry trees in Washington, DC, home to the National Cherry Blossom Festival bloom a week earlier on average than they did when the festival started a century ago (https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/cherry-blossoms).
This section should have the heading "PhenoFacts: Examples in Phenology." It should have an interactive slideshow with each of the following paragraphs having its own slide. Where a fact has a citation, it can be included in small print at the bottom of the paragraph.
Maple syrup is produced by boiling sap from the maple tree in northern states and canadian provinces. This sap can only be collected for a few days each spring when day time temperatures are above freezing and night time temperatures are below freezing. How do you think climate change will impact maple syrup production and why?
Monarch butterflies migrate every year from across North America to Mexico for the winter. Historically, these migrations have been very consistent in when they happen, but between the years 1992 and 2000 in Cape May, New Jersey, the peak of migration south has moved between two and three weeks later in the year (Culbertson et al., 2022). What environmental factors do you think could control monarch migration? What would you expect will happen to monarch migration in the future, and why? Why would we provide a fact like this from New Jersey, and not elsewhere or everywhere? Culbertson, K. A., Garland, M. S., Walton, R. K., Zemaitis, L., & Pocius, V. M. (2022). Long-term monitoring indicates shifting fall migration timing in monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus). Global Change Biology, 28(3), 727–738. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15957
Understanding phenology requires a lot of data collected over a long time in many places. This makes it difficult for some things to become known. Many topics like this require government programs or citizen science to understand. Citizen Science, sometimes called community science, is a way of answering questions that require data such as this. The National Phenology Network (NPN) runs a program like this called Nature’s Notebook. People can become trained observers, and collect data for Nature’s Notebook. Take a few minutes to explore the NPN’s website here. What type of questions could you answer with NPN data?
Shifts in phenology do not always follow the pattern you might predict. The Unita Ground Squirrel in the Western United States for Instance has not shifted when it emerges from hibernation despite the warming that has occurred (Falvo et al., 2019). Hibernating during warm temperatures requires more energy than hibernating in cold temperatures. This increases the risk of running out of energy storage before emerging for the year. This is particularly hard on older individuals, and reduces the life expectancy of individuals. Species that have a harder time adjusting their phenology will have a harder time adapting to climate change. What questions do you have about the unpredictable nature of phenology, or about the mechanisms that control when hibernating animals wake up? Falvo, C. A., Koons, D. N., & Aubry, L. M. (2019). Seasonal climate effects on the survival of a hibernating mammal. Ecology and Evolution, 9(7), 3756–3769. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5000
You can use a tool called PhenoWatch to learn about the phenology of several types of trees using your own as well as NPN data. In PhenoWatch, you submit your own phenology observations of species, date, location, and phenophase, then and graph the phenology of that species. What question would you ask about the phenology of leafing or flowering in a tree species that is found near school?
There are festivals scheduled every year to coincide with phenological events. As the phenology has shifted with climate change, many of these events have had to be shifted to different dates on the calendar. In fact, the cherry trees in Washington, DC, home to the National Cherry Blossom Festival bloom a week earlier on average than they did when the festival started a century ago (https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/cherry-blossoms).