Taking the Pulse of our Planet: The USA National Phenology Network
Patterns of phenology for plants and animals control ecosystem processes, determine land surface properties, control biosphere-atmosphere interactions, and affect food production, health, conservation, and recreation. Although phenological data and models have applications related to scientific research, education and outreach, agriculture, tourism and recreation, human health, and natural resource conservation and management, until recently there was no coordinated effort to understand phenology at the national scale. The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN; www.usanpn.org), established in 2007, is an emerging and exciting partnership between federal agencies, the academic community, and the general public to establish a national science and monitoring initiative focused on phenology. The vision of the NPN is to promote consideration of phenology as a way to discover and explore the nature and pace of our dynamic world, increase availability of phenology data and related information to scientists and the public, and facilitate synthesis of phenology information to aid management and decision making in an era of rapidly changing climate. The National Coordinating Office (NCO) for the NPN, located in Tucson, Arizona, guides the development of the NPN and facilitates communication among the various partners of the NPN. In addition, the NCO supports the NPN through development and maintenance of an information management system coupled to a national database, as well as plant and animal phenology monitoring programs, a partnerships program, a land surface phenology program, and education and outreach programs. In March 2009, the NCO released a new website that features standardized monitoring protocols and an on-line data entry user interface for 215 vetted local, regional and national plant species. The NCO is developing a wildlife phenology program for the 2010 season, and recently established a biophysical program promoting co-location of biological and physical variables. We also host an educational clearinghouse for phenology education, and work to facilitate the development of educational materials (for K-Gray) through partnerships. Future directions include integration with national and international, formal and informal science networks and the improvement of remote sensing phenology standards, products and services.
