Added: 04/29/2006 |
World Phenology Network - Benefits for a Variety of ClientsNo one can deny that today's nature has changed greatly over the last centuries. It has lead to certain changes in our activities and way of life. Even it was created the certain science that deals with studying of the relationship between climate and the timing of periodic natural phenomena such as migration of birds, bud bursting, or flowering of plants. This science is called phenology.
Phenology is an old scientific discipline. Centuries ago people already become aware of the timing importance of life cycle events. The accurate observations could provide information on the development of plants and animals. For agricultural purposes this science was of especial importance.
To get better understanding and thorough information on the variation in timing of life cycle events, several monitoring networks were set up all over the world. Over the last several years many of them disappeared reducing the general phenology network number. This is tightly connected with the decrease in agricultural importance of these networks. Despite of this fact there is still a great number of phenology networks all over the world. They are organizations that continue their work following strict guidelines. These organizations can evolve both professionals and volunteers.
In the light of current importance of climatic changes taking place nowadays, phenology has obtained, as never before, great significance. Long-term data series have become a very important reference for current climate change impact studies. In deed, if we have precise long-term data concerning climatic as well as weather changes, we'll have the possibility at least predict the possible negative or positive consequences of those changes. The question of preventing negative consequences is still open. Of course, there were certain set of problems including the obtained information sharing between the existing regional and national phenological monitoring networks in world.
These problems were already partly dealt with by the Phenology Study Group of the International Society of Biometeorology (ISB). One of the most powerful phenology networks is the European Phenology Network. Its main and universal aim is to increase the efficiency, added value and use of phenological monitoring and research. Next step is to give an incentive to the practical use of phenological data in European member states in the context of global climate change. They have already had rather developed programmed items of which are:
- "Xco-ordination" of the integration, co-operation, and further expansion of phenological networks in Europe
-"Xdevelopment" of two on-line databases (metadatabase and bibliographical database)
- "Xorganisation" of meetings, international conferences, scientists, (international) organizations, commercial enterprises, policy makers and educational organizations
Another one huge and rather old phenology network is UK phenology network. It dates back 1875 when UK phenology took a major leap forward when the Royal Meteorological Society established a national recorder network. Annual reports were published up until 1948.
Then there were a 50 years break in activity of this organization and in 1998 Tim Sparks, research biologist at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in Cambridge, started a pilot scheme to revive a phenology network in the UK that would be both compatible with historic records and current international schemes. Over 24,000 people across the UK are now actively involved with the UK Phenology Network, around half of them online. In 2005 the UKPN joined forces with the BBC to launch the Spring-watch and Autumn-watch observations. Over 100,000 people contributed 200,000 observations in 2005.
The number of people actively involved in the UK Phenology Network is now 24,089.
Over the ocean there is the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN). The goal of the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) is to facilitate systematic collection and free dissemination of phenological data from across the United States. NPN gives guidance to help professional and citizen scientists select and observe appropriate species at their location, and then encourages them to register and submit the data they collect each year over the Internet
In Canada there are different phenology programs that encourage schools, community groups, individuals, naturalists, backyard enthusiasts, Scouts and Guides to engage in the monitoring of soil, air, water and other aspects of environmental quality.
The participants of these programs record different weather and climate dates to understand what's happening in Canada's regions, and the rest of the country.
Research is accomplished at the University of Alberta BioScience Department, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
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