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The USA National Phenology Network brings together scientists and citizens to collect data on plants and animals.
Changing seasons inspire science
Nature lovers have long tracked the timing of certain events — when plants bloom or
when fish swim upstream to spawn — to answer practical questions: When are the
best times to hunt and fish? When should crops be planted and harvested? These
days, such homespun investigators have come to be known as citizen scientists.
Increasingly, researchers are tapping into the wealth of observations being
made by citizen scientists nationwide, a data trove impossible for scientists to
gather on their own (or even with a small army of graduate students). One of the
largest repositories of such data is maintained by the USA National Phenology
Network, founded in 2007.
Last month the organization reached a landmark of more than 1 million
observations collected on hundreds of species ranging from alfalfa to Yoshino
cherry, the tree whose blossoms beautify the Tidal Basin each spring in
Washington, D.C. Shifts in the timing of such events are among the keenest
and most widespread indicators of climate change. That makes phenology — the
study of the life cycles of plants and animals and the effects of year-to-year
and season-to-season climate variations — a hot topic (see Page 16).
Most of the observations cataloged by the phenology network have been made
since 2009, says Jake Weltzin, an ecologist with the U. S. Geological Survey in
Tucson, Ariz., and executive director of the network. But in some cases scientists
won’t have to wait decades for long-term records to pile up, since the organization has become a home for data collected over many years by local and regional
groups. Many of these are devoted to monitoring a particular group such as lilacs,
shrubs that live across much of the northern United States and whose budding
and flowering have been tracked avidly by citizen scientists since 1956.
Not content to merely oversee the data gathered by others, Weltzin regularly
monitors the flowering and fruiting of cacti near his Tucson home, as well as seed
production of invasive grass species in a nearby wilderness area. “It gets me out
of the house and into nature,” he says. — Sid Perkins
Get involved
Anyone who is interested can gather data
for use by scientists. here are a few
websites where you can learn more:
s Did You Feel It? allows the u.s.
geological survey to track the effects
of earthquakes. log on to describe
the strength and duration of shaking
at your location, plus give details such
as whether you saw building damage
or rattling dishes. The data allow
scientists to better predict how future
quakes may affect your area. see
on.doi.gov/citznQuake
s Wildlife Health Event Reporter lets
users report sightings of sick or
dead wildlife. The information helps
scientists detect and contain disease
outbreaks that may pose a health risk
to wildlife, domestic animals or people.
see bit.ly/citzn Wildlife
s Citizen Science Central is maintained
by researchers at Cornell university
to help citizen scientists find and
participate in projects or design their
own, with guidelines for everything from
choosing a topic and forming a team
to analyzing data and disseminating
results. see bit.ly/citznCentral
s Nature’s Notebook is run by the
national Phenology network and lets
people share observations of the
timing of flowering, animal migrations
and color changes in leaves. see
bit.ly/citznnature
A. Miller-rushing
