Jake F. Weltzin United States Geological Survey Taking the Pulse of our Planet The USA National Phenology Network

Outline What is phenology and why is it important? What is the USA National Phenology Network? Information management Monitoring programs Education and outreach Applications Challenges to data integration

Cause and consequence of seasonal biological events Phenology

“Phenology…is perhaps the simplest process in which to track changes in the ecology of species in response to climate change.” (IPCC 2007)

Changes in spring timing for many organisms Parmesan and Yohe 2003 Nature Parmesan and Yohe Meta-analysis 677 species examined years (med = 45) 62% advanced in timing Camille Parmesan

Response depends on the type of organism Parmesan 2007 GCB Change in spring timing (days/decade) N = 203

English Oak Winter Moth Pied Flycatcher Both et al Nature EARLIER SAME TIME EACH YEAR EARLIER A three-way mismatch

Peak of honey production, central MD, : 24.7 day advance W. Esaias et al.

Outline What is phenology and why is it important? What is the USA National Phenology Network? Information management Monitoring programs Education and outreach Applications Challenges to data integration

A new data resource—a national network of integrated phenological observations across space and time Key Goal Understand how plants, animals and landscapes respond to environmental variation and climate change

Develop a national phenology information management system Develop a national phenology monitoring system Develop partnerships for implementation Conduct and facilitate education and outreach Facilitate phenology research Facilitate development of decision support tools Core functions

Agencies, NGOs, academia, the public Integrate with other science/monitoring networks Target: 100,000 observation locations Standardized protocols for plants & animals Contemporary & legacy data Education & outreach Business to Business + Business to Customer NPN in a nutshell

Organizing and integrating data across scales Adapted from CENR-OSTP Remote sensing Intensive science sites Extensive management sites Volunteer & education networks

Native American Tribes Scientists Specialized Networks Specialized Networks Public Agencies Public Agencies NGOs Educators Citizen Scientists Citizen Scientists National Coordinating Office Information Management Monitoring Programs Communications Resource Managers Services for stakeholders

Outline What is phenology and why is it important? What is the USA National Phenology Network? Information management Monitoring programs Education and outreach Applications Challenges to data integration

National Phenology IMS: Vision Decision support Research Education Products Data Data curation User interface Databases Metadata Ancillary Legacy Partners Contemporary Search Basic Data Output Basic Visualizations Search Synthesis Visualizations Work platform Datasets

Data Model ERD for National Phenology Database

Outline What is phenology and why is it important? What is the USA National Phenology Network? Information management Monitoring programs Education and outreach Applications Challenges to data integration

On-line user interface 215 plant species 60+ animal species Beginning to advanced protocols Status monitoring –sampling intensity –absence data National Phenology Monitoring System species

Preliminary Results 2009 Growing season 2,222 registered participants 533 individuals submitting observations

Remote Sensing and Land Surface Phenology Optimization and standardization Integration across products and scales Research into utility and accuracy of products

Outline What is phenology and why is it important? What is the USA National Phenology Network? Information management Monitoring programs Education and outreach Applications Challenges to data integration

The Great Sunflower Project Educational and outreach opportunities

Educator’s Clearinghouse

Outline What is phenology and why is it important? What is the USA National Phenology Network? Information management Monitoring programs Education and outreach Applications Challenges to data integration

Science Predictive services Health Resource mgmt Conservation Agriculture Ecosystem services Recreation Applications and decision-support tools

Luvall, Sprigg et al.

Outline What is phenology and why is it important? What is the USA National Phenology Network? Information management Monitoring programs Education and outreach Applications Challenges to data integration

We are live today! We are a distributed, bottoms-up national network Broad variety of users/audiences Business to business AND business to consumer Large number of contributing stations Multiple charges: education/outreach, research, decision-support Interaction with other large and small networks Focus Key challenges to data integration What we are…

Incredibly complex nature of the data (not rainfall!) real-time (contemporary) repeated (different variables through time) one-off, or multiple observers dynamic standard protocols customization of methodologies images Discovery and ingestion of legacy datasets large, un-digitized, simple (data rich) small, complex (metadata rich) Key challenges to data integration Our data…

Metadata standards Integration of contemporary and legacy phenology datasets Integration of external supporting data Web services Internal (visualization, synthesis products) External (users) Scaling (organismal to digital number) Provenance QA/QC of all data Long-term nature of data (curation) Security Key challenges to data integration Our data, cont…

Dynamic landscapes Administrative Scientific understanding Stakeholder needs Information management Resource constraints – no dedicated $ for IM Structural constraints – '.org' Key challenges to data integration Constraints…

PHENOCAM

Phenomap, the iPhone app: MTTIW?

Phenology/pollinator observation gardens

3 million (high-value) index cards in 41 filing cabinets Arrival and departure dates, over 870 bird species , across North America Participants: Teddy Roosevelt, Bob Birdseye, etc. Data rescue process Observation/ record of bird Observation cards scanned Volunteers transcribe data Scanned cards available online

National Phenology IMS: Vision Decision support Research Education Products Data Data curation User interface Databases Metadata Ancillary Legacy Partners Contemporary Search Basic Data Output Basic Visualizations Search Synthesis Visualizations Work platform Datasets

National Phenology IMS: Reality Decision support Research Education Products Data Data curation User interface Database Metadata Contemporary Search Basic Data Output Basic Visualizations Search Visualizations Datasets