ISB Phenology Commission 2011 Annual Report

Submitted by Dist. Prof. Mark D. Schwartz, Chair

ISB and the Phenology Commission were major sponsors of the Phenology 2010 conference that took place in Dublin Ireland from 14-17 June 2010, with over 120 attendees, and was followed at the same site by a one-day International Workshop on the Validation of Satellite-based Land Surface Phenology Products. The November 2011 issue of IJB was a special issue devoted exclusively to papers developed from presentations made at the Phenology 2010 conference.
A second international phenology conference, Phenology 2012, has been scheduled for 10-13 September 2012 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, also sponsored by ISB and the Phenology Commission. A similar special issue of IJB is planned to proceed from this conference.

Commission members in the USA continue to work closely with those developing the USA National Phenology Network.

Commission members continue to coordinate the development of GEO TASK-US-09-03D: Global Phenology Data. This task seeks to: 1) coordinate the collection of in-situ phenology observations and expand existing observing networks; 2) identify and generate satellite-derived phenological/temporal metrics and test models for describing the phenological characteristics of natural and modified ecosystems; and 3) explore the impact of vegetation phenology on biodiversity, net primary productivity, species distribution, albedo, and biomass and ultimately the global climate. During our Phenology Commission meeting at ICB2011, we will have guests attending from the WMO Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM), who are interesting in discussing collaboration regarding collection phenology data world-wide, and building a global phenology network.