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USA National Phenology Network

Phenology: the Pulse of Our Planet.

News & Reports

 

Select news articles relevant to NPN

NPN teams up with Monarch Watch for 2008
Monarch Watch

Blossoms Springing Forward Earlier, Too
National Public Radio

Student scientists track climate change
The Associated Press

Spring coming earlier for birds, bees, and sneezes because of global warming
The Associated Press

Seasons Springing Forward, Reports Show
ABC News

Old Photos Document Early Spring in East
Forbes

Kids help track early plant blooms
Houston Chronicle

Midwest Now a Harbor for Early Birds
newsday.com

Earlier Spring in US
Interactive Graphic

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review - Keeping A Record
One of the world's most comprehensive climate databases is a key tool for researchers

Teaming up with Thoreau
Smithsonian Magazine, Oct. 2007

Climate Reference Network (CRN) Newsletter
CRN highlights USA-NPN as a Complementary Network. NCDC NOAA, Sept. 2007

Buzzing about Climate Change
A Maryland beekeeper's annual records of honey production reveal that flowering trees are blooming nearly a month earlier than they did a few decades ago. Earth Observatory NASA, Sept. 2007

 

U.S.A.-National Phenology Network Announces First Director and Headquarters

USGS press release, August 24, 2007: U.S.A.-National Phenology Network Announces First Director and Headquarters (PDF)

 

Call for Papers

American Society of Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing (ASPRS) and USA-NPN

Towards a Southwest Phenology Network, Southwest US Region
October 5, 2007
Tucson, AZ

American Geophysical Union
B17: Observing, Analyzing, and Modeling Phenologies at Multiple Scales
Fall Meeting, December 10-14, 2007
San Francisco, CA

 

Chronology of Selected Important Events for USA-NPN

USA-NPN generated and sustained impressive momentum since 2005. Below is a very incomplete list of some of the more substantial accomplishments. This list does not include the many presentations, grant proposals, and other activities that have contributed to the very rapid development and implementation of NPN. There is a large list of contributors, and many individuals, NGO partners, and local to federal agencies have generously contributed time, money, and resources to the USA-NPN.

  • Board of Directors identified  - Board to direct implementation of USA-NPN mission Board of Directors. 
  • NPN Cyberinfrastructure Design Workshop - May 2007, Tucson, AZ.  Strategic planning for implementation of USA-NPN software and hardware.  Lead by Dr. Bruce Wilson, ORNL.
  • Dr. Jake Weltzin accepts offer to become USA-NPN Executive Director. April, 2007. Dr. Weltzin assumed this position on August 20, 2007.
  • Letters sent to over 3,000 NWS Cooperative Observers inviting their participation in the NPN. March 2007
  • CoCoRAHS observers invited to participate in the NPN.  February 2007. http://www.cocorahs.org/
  • Project BudBurst springs to life  April 1, 2007, engaging hundreds of citizen scientists nationwide to collect important climate change data on the timing of leafing and flowering of trees and flowers. http://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/budburst/. 
  • Landscape Phenology protocol field testing begins in grasslands, desert scrub, deciduous and coniferous forests, and alpine ecosystems, March 2007.
  • LTER Phenology Workshop - February, 2007.  Attended by Mark Losleben as USA-NPN. Topics included Land Surface Phenology (LSP), phenology sampling protocols, survey of LTER phenology data sets, future LTER phenology studies, relationship with NPN
  • Mark Losleben takes up position as Assistant Director, January 2007, and opens the USA-NPN coordinating office at the University of Arizona, Office of Arid Land Studies. 
  • NSF awards USA-NPN a 5-year Research Coordination Network grant, fall 2006.  This is to promote and sustain scientific planning and collaboration across the network.  PIs are Drs. Mark Schwartz and Susan Mazer.  Steering Committee Members: P. Stephen Baenziger, University of Nebraska; Julio Betancourt, U.S. Geological Survey/University of Arizona; Carol Brewer, University of Montana; Mike Dettinger, U.S. Geological Survey/Scripps Institution of Oceanography; David Inouye, University of Maryland; Beverly Law, Oregon State University and AmeriFlux Network; Susan Mazer, University of California-Santa Barbara; Eric Post, Penn State University; Bradley Reed, U.S. Geological Survey; and Robert Waide,  University of New Mexico and LTER Network Office
  • Second USA-NPN Implementation Team Workshop, October 2006.  Sponsored by NSF, USGS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the National Air and Space Administration (NASA), a 2nd Planning Workshop of 44 participants was convened at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Oct. 10-12, 2006. Working groups labored to (1) develop lists of target species and appropriate observation protocols; (2) leverage existing networks to build a backbone network of nationwide observations in 2007; (3) identify and launch new opportunities for education, citizen science and outreach; (4) develop strategies for implementing the remote sensing component of NPN; and (5) draft a data management plan for use in 2007 and design the necessary cyberinfrastructure to operate NPN over the long term.  A meeting summary was published in Transactions American Geophysical Union, Vol. 88, p. 211.
  • The University of Arizona hires Mark Losleben, October 2006.  Formerly the Director of the Mountain Climate Program and Senior Professional Scientist at the University of Colorado's Mountain Research Station, home of the Niwot Ridge LTER site, Mark is now the Assistant Director of USA-NPN.
  • Cooperative agreement between USGS and the University of Arizona established to fund a National Coordinating Office in Tucson. Summer 2006. 
  • First NPN Implementation Team Meeting, Tucson, AZ March 2006. The Implementation drafted a vision statement to guide initial development of USA-NPN, and produced rough drafts of the major sections of an overall implementation plan.
  • First NPN Planning Workshop, Tucson, AZ August, 2005.  The group agreed on a framework of four expandable components or tiers, each representing a different level of spatial coverage and quality/quantity of phenological and environmental information. An Implementation Team of 28 members was tasked with securing funding for a central office and for additional workshops to plan and implement core aspects of the network.  A meeting summary was published in Transactions American Geophysical Union, Vol. 86, p. 539.

 

Publications

  • An article by Betancourt et al describing the October 2006 USA-NPN workshop was recently published in EOS (Eos Trans. AGU 88#19 p211 (2007)).  This article talks about the evolving plans for the USA NPN. If you have access to AGU journals, the article can be found at http://www.agu.org/pubs/eos/eo0719.shtml.  A longer version is available in the electronic supplements to EOS at
    http://www.agu.org/eos_elec/2007/19-211.html. 

 

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