Phenology is the study of the timing of natural events. Phenology observers record the date and location of important seasonal events, such as bud burst, flowering, insect emergence and animal migration. Once a Victorian hobby, phenology has never been of much interest to Americans. The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) aims to change that by creating a network of observers, from school children to scientists, to systematically collect and report phenology data.

By combining phenology data with short- and long-term climate and weather data, scientists are better able to track the impact of climate change on the natural world. The USA-NPN was launched in Spring 2008 as a collaboration between the US Geological Survey, the University of Arizona, the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and Project Budburst of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

The creation of a national phenology network is not only of benefit to scientists. It can help connect people with nature in a way that is useful to our understanding of climate change. Because of the technical complexity of most science, it is more and more difficult for citizens to be scientists. In the 19th century, many scientific observations were made by hobbyists. The national phenology network offers the promise of restoring the tradition of the amateur scientist.

Phenological observations are easy to make. All you need is a calendar, notebook and perhaps a ruler. The USA-NPN is trying to systematize observations by creating several projects at different levels of sophistication. Project Budburst is suitable for anyone, regardless of experience, and is especially suitable for schools. Project Budburst provides activity guides for native trees and shrubs, native flowers and ornamentals. A set of 18 widely-distributed native species, known as calibration plant species, has been selected to create an extended network of observations with sufficient overlap among observations to allow species responses across the entire country to be compared.

Anybody who is concerned about the impacts of climate change/global warming on our environment should join this effort.  For the investment of a few hours a year, you could help create a very important database that will help scientists study the impacts of global warming on the natural world. Sign up for Project Budburst today!

Picture: Red maple flowers. Picture by Tom Kimmerer

USA National Phenology Network | The Pulse of Our Planet

Is climate change bringing an earlier spring?  Article in SFGate.com

An experiment that pumps carbon dioxide into groups of trees growing outdoors, designed to test how forests will respond to global warming may be ended by the US Department of Energy.

This is not a nefarious plot to squash the results of global warming research, but a genuine disagreement among two groups of scientists over how to proceed in climate change research.

The US Department of Energy has funded nearly 10 years of research at Duke Forest in Durham NC, Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, and Harshaw Experimental Forest in Wisconsin. At each forest, rings of plastic pipes release carefully measured amounts of CO₂ into the air around groups of trees.  The experiment is known as FACE, for Free Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment.

Results so far indicate that forests respond to the extra carbon dioxide, an essential plant nutrient, by increasing growth. However, unless the forests are on fertile ground, growth is concentrated in short-lived plant parts like leaves or needles and fine roots. These parts die and decompose, releasing their carbon back into the atmosphere. When fertility is higher, trees may retain more of the carbon in wood. However, fertility experiments are not yet complete.

Project scientists believe that a few more years of data are needed to determine the effects of soil fertility on the ability of trees to sequester carbon.  However, DOE scientists believe that the experiment has run its course and that it is time to sample the trees and soils as a final measure of the long-term impacts of the experiment.

Richard Norby, who oversees the experiment at Oak Ridge, said “"This comes up in all sorts of long-term experiments — when is the right time to say, `Enough,’ There’s no good answer to that."

Picture: Duke FACE Experiment, courtesy of Duke University

Sources:

• Duke FACE
• Oak Ridge FACE
• Aspen FACE
• The Associated Press: Gov’t wants to change course of forest experiments

Global warming will gradually increase the temperature of soils. Most models predict that increased soil temperature will allow fungi and bacteria to break down soil organic matter faster, releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 

New research from the University of California – Irvine shows that, at least for dry soils of boreal spruce forests, rising temperatures cause fungi to dry out, reducing their rate of respiration. Instead of a feed-forward effect that increases greenhouse gas emissions,  Steven Allison and Kathleen Treseder found that warming boreal soils decreased fungal respiration.  Their work was published in Global Change Biology.

This does not remove all concerns about warming of forest soils. In areas of permafrost, where there is little microbial respiration, warming causes melting of the ice and accelerates microbial respiration.

Citation:

Allison, S. D., and K. K. Treseder. in press. Warming and drying suppress microbial activity and carbon cycling in boreal forest soils. Global Change Biology.

Sources:

• Fungi emit less carbon dioxide as climate warms – UC Irvine
• The Allison Lab, UC Irvine
• Global Change Biology

A very important article from Joe Romm at Climate Progress this morning. Evidence is growing that methane in the atmosphere is increasing, and methane is a powerful greenhouse gas (20 times the heat absorption of CO₂ One source of methane may be deep sea-bed deposits that are released as the Arctic Ocean warms.   Joe points out that the evidence is preliminary until the research is published in a peer-reviewed journal, which is planned.

As a general recommendation, if you are interested in the science and politics of climate change, Joe’s Climate Progress blog is the most reliable source of information available.

Climate Progress » Blog Archive » Has runaway climate change begun?

Cross posted at Sustainable Kentucky and Tree Trends.

The Meteorological Office, Britain’s equivalent of our Weather Service, has a great short article that refutes the notion that global warming has slowed down.  The key paragraph is the first one:

"Anyone who thinks global warming has stopped has their head in the sand. The evidence is clear – the long-term trend in global temperatures is rising, and humans are largely responsible for this rise. Global warming does not mean that each year will be warmer than the last, natural phenomena will mean that some years will be much warmer and others cooler. You only need to look at 1998 to see a record-breaking warm year caused by a very strong El Niño. In the last couple of years, the underlying warming is partially masked caused by a strong La Niña. Despite this, 11 of the last 13 years are the warmest ever recorded."

This figure is also quite helpful

Global average temperature anomaly 1975-2007

Global average temperature anomaly from 1975 to 2007, relative to the 1961-1990 average.
The black line shows the annual figure. The red line shows the trend over the full 33 years.
The blue lines show the varying rate of the trend over 10-year periods.

Links:

Met Office: Global warming goes on

Cross posted at Sustainable Kentucky and Tree Trends.