How Can the USA National Phenology Network’s Data Resource Benefit You? Recent Applications of the Phenology Data and Information Housed in the National Phenology Database

Abstract:

The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN; www.usanpn.org) serves science and society by promoting a broad understanding of plant and animal phenology and the relationships among phenological patterns and all aspects of environmental change. The National Phenology Database, maintained by the USA-NPN, is experiencing steady growth in the number of data records it houses. Since 2009, over 5,500 participants in Nature’s Notebook, the national-scale, multi-taxa phenology observation program coordinated by the USA-NPN, have contributed nearly 6 million observation records of plants and animals.

The phenology data curated by the USA-NPN are being used in a rapidly growing number of applications for science, conservation and resource management. Data and data products generated by the USA-NPN have been used in 17 peer-reviewed publications to date. Additionally, phenology data collected via Nature’s Notebook is actively informing decisions ranging from efficiently scheduling street-sweeping activities to keep dropped leaves from entering inland lakes, to timing the spread of herbicide or other restoration activities to maximize their efficacy. We demonstrate several types of questions that can be addressed with this observing system and the resultant data, and highlight several ongoing local- to national-scale projects as well as some recently published studies. Additional data-mining and exploration by interested researchers and resource managers will undoubtedly continue to demonstrate the value of these data.