ISB Phenology Commission Report – January 2010

Submitted by Mark D. Schwartz, Chair

Commission members in the USA continue to develop the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN, www.usanpn.org). A new web-based system for the entering phenological data for over 200 species of plants came online in 2009, and a new system for entering animal phenological data will be coming early in 2010. A major phenology conference will take place in Ireland during June 2010, http://www.tcd.ie/Botany/phenology/2010/ and will be followed at the same site by a one day International Workshop on the Validation of Satellite-based Land Surface Phenology Products, http://lpvs.gsfc.nasa.gov/LPV_meetings/Phenology_mtg.html. 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, biomass and ultimately the global climate.