Target: Phenology—timing of natural events through the seasons.- Importance to Food & Agr: Phenology refers to seasonal happenings with respect to climate, plants, and animals. The timing of fruit blossoms year-to-year and the arrival of pollinators, pests, beneficial insects, and birds are all examples of phenology. Timing of these occurrences is critical to food production.
- Issues: Besides variations from year-to-year, long-term changes, disruptions, and mismatches in timing due to climate change are of increasing importance, often requiring adaptations in our growing systems.
- Observing Options: Recording (and celebrating) dates of first leaf, blossoming, and fruiting are common activities as well as arrival dates of pollinators, beneficials, and pests (see First Occurrences).
For an established recording site, such as a home, garden, or school, having weather observations of max and min temperatures and precipitation—from onsite or from a nearby observer—is very useful in making sense of the variations from year to year (see Weather & Climate).
In mountainous regions, blossoming dates of alpine plants from year to year can illustrate interesting and critical trends in high-altitude climate.
- Citizen Science: There are a number of excellent programs to chose from, including:
- Nature’s Notebook: A very comprehensive program with detailed guidance for reporting seasonal occurrences for many plants and animals, including domestic fruits and vegetables.
- Journey North: Allows you to submit arrival dates of several key migrating species, and view maps of their movement north in the spring.
- Project Budburst: Share your observations of blossoming of any one of hundreds of plants, mostly wild, but a few crops.
- Getting Started Tip: Look for First Occurrences and report some of them on Journey North. Then pick out a favorite target and dig deeper with one of the citizen science programs above.
