Transcript What is the USA National Phenology Network?

Taking the Pulse of our Planet
The USA National Phenology Network
Jake F. Weltzin
United States Geological Survey
www.usanpn.org
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
Phenology
Cause and consequence
of seasonal biological events
“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
• Meta-analysis
• 677 species examined
• 16-132 years (med = 45)
Camille Parmesan
• 62% advanced in timing
Parmesan and Yohe 2003 Nature
Change in spring timing
(days/decade)
-10
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Bu
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rb
&
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Response depends on the type of organism
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
N = 203
Parmesan 2007 GCB
EARLIER
A three-way
mismatch
English Oak
Winter Moth
EARLIER
SAME TIME
EACH YEAR
Pied Flycatcher
Both et al. 2006 Nature
W. Esaias et al.
Peak of honey production, central MD, 1964-2005: 24.7 day advance
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
Core functions
• 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
NPN in a nutshell
• 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
Organizing and
integrating data
across scales
Intensive science sites
Extensive management
sites
Volunteer &
education networks
Remote
sensing
Adapted from CENR-OSTP
Services for stakeholders
Scientists
Citizen
Scientists
Native
American
Tribes
Specialized
Networks
National
Coordinating Office
Information Management
Monitoring Programs
Communications
Public
Agencies
Educators
NGOs
Resource
Managers
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
Data
Contemporary
Legacy
User interface
Data curation
Databases
Partners
Metadata
Ancillary
Products
Search
Search
Synthesis
Basic Data
Visualizations
Output
Research
WorkBasic
platform
Visualizations
Datasets
Education
Decision
support
Data Model ERD for National Phenology Database
http://developer.usanpn.org/dev_data_model/MImage.html
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 Monitoring System
• On-line user interface
species
• 215 plant species
• 60+ animal species
• Beginning to
advanced protocols
• Status monitoring
– sampling intensity
– absence data
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
Educational and outreach opportunities
The Great
Sunflower Project
Educator’s Clearinghouse
http://www.usanpn.org/?q=educators_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
Applications and decision-support tools
• Science
• Predictive services
• Health
• Resource mgmt
• Conservation
• Agriculture
• Ecosystem services
• Recreation
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
Key challenges to data integration
What we are…
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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
Our data…
• 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, cont…
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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
Constraints…
• Dynamic landscapes
• Administrative
• Scientific understanding
• Stakeholder needs
• Information management
• Resource constraints – no dedicated $ for IM
• Structural constraints – '.org'
www.usanpn.org
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
• 1880-1970, across North America
• Participants: Teddy Roosevelt, Bob Birdseye, etc.
www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bpp/
Data rescue process
Observation/
record of bird
Observation
cards
scanned
Scanned cards
available online
Volunteers
transcribe
data
National Phenology IMS: Vision
Data
Contemporary
Legacy
User interface
Data curation
Databases
Partners
Metadata
Ancillary
Products
Search
Search
Synthesis
Basic Data
Visualizations
Output
Research
WorkBasic
platform
Visualizations
Datasets
Education
Decision
support
National Phenology IMS: Reality
Data
Contemporary
User interface
Data curation
Database
Metadata
Products
Search
Search
Research
Basic Data
Visualizations
Output
Decision
support
Basic
Visualizations
Datasets
Education