the national phenology network...national phenology network? science, management, decision-making,...

Jake F. Weltzin

Ecologist US Geological Survey

The National Phenology Network

Providing capacity to meet natural resource agency science and

monitoring objectives

Outline

• IM&A in the USFS context

• The National Phenology Network

• Nature's Notebook: A project of the USA-NPN

• Data applications

• R9 pilot project

USFS in a changing environment

The Roadmap

The 2012 Planning Rule

Monitoring Directive

The Scorecard

Doug Chaltry Regional Planner, Monitoring & Evaluation Coordinator USFS Eastern Region

• Goal 1: Relevant and credible information

– Focused on priority management issues

– Integration and scalability

– Based on relevant science

– High quality and consistency

– Timely and accessible

• Goal 2: An inclusive and comprehensive system

– Information needs shared by partners

– Across organizational and geographic boundaries

• Goal 3: Must be responsive and adaptive to change

– Responsive to changing management needs

– Responsive to social, economic, and ecological change

– Responsive and adaptive to changing agency capacity

IM&A Strategy, USFS, 8 July 2013

IM&A: Needs defined by Goals

“A unified, multiscale monitoring system capable of detecting and evaluating national, regional and local trends will enable land mangers to develop and adjust adaptation and mitigation strategies to improve their effectiveness across landscapes and landownerships."

- National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change 2011

Adaptive management across agencies

Outline

• IM&A in the USFS context

• The National Phenology Network

• Nature's Notebook: A project of the USA-NPN

• Data applications

• R9 pilot project

Phenology is…

The recurring plant and animal life cycle stages, or phenophases, such as leafing and flowering, maturation of agricultural plants, emergence of insects, and migration of birds.

Why Phenology? Phenology data helps us understand how plants,

animals and landscapes respond to environmental variation and climate change.

What is the… National Phenology Network?

Science, management, decision-making, policy

Enquist et al., Intl J Biomet 2014

What is the… National Phenology Network?

USA-NPN serves science and society by collecting,

organizing and distributing phenological information to aid

decision-making and adaptation to variable climates and

changing environments.

USA-NPN 5-year Strategic Plan www.usanpn.org/pubs/reports

Ganguly et al. 2010

Mean growing season length (d) 2001-2006

Betancourt et al. in prep

Large fires in western US

What is the… National Phenology Network?

Adapted from K.B. Jones et al. 2010

Adapted from CENR-OSTP

Remote sensing

Intensive science sites

Extensive observation sites

Volunteer & education networks

What is the… National Phenology Network?

LCCs + CSCs

UC-NRS

A National Framework for Science and Monitoring

What is the… National Phenology Network?

Outline

• IM&A in the USFS context

• The National Phenology Network

• Nature's Notebook: A project of the USA-NPN

• Data applications

• R9 pilot project

• Organism-based

- status (presence/absence)

- abundance or intensity

• Standard protocols

- vetted & published

- provenance

- cross-walked

- 945 species (plant+animal)

• 7 data pubs to date

A ground-based, multi-taxa, national-scale observing system

Denny et al., Intl J Biomet 2014 www.usanpn.org/natures_notebook OMB Control #: 1028-0103

What is… Nature's Notebook?

2008 2010 2011 2012 2013 2009

What is… Nature's Notebook?

Data dashboard: www.usanpn.org/node/21094

www.usanpn.org/results/data

Data, metadata, documentation freely available

What is… Nature's Notebook?

www.usanpn.org/data/visualizations

Dynamic tools for visualizing data

What is… Nature's Notebook?

Outline

• IM&A in the USFS context

• The National Phenology Network

• Nature's Notebook: A project of the USA-NPN

• Data applications

• R9 pilot project

How do natural resource professionals… understand bird migrations and habitats?

Pro

po

rtion

trees repo

rted flo

werin

g

% e

Bir

d c

hec

klis

ts/w

eek

Williams et al., 2013 Derived from Kellermann et al., in prep

pollinators Pat Davis/PLOS One

Jeong et al., GRL 2013

Red

map

le (

A. r

ub

rum

)

A. rubrum, 2080-2099

How do natural resource professionals… forecast forest green-up at regional scales?

Spring Onset, 1950-2012

From Ault et al., EOS 2013 and Ault et al., in prep

How do natural resource professionals… understand impacts of anomalous climate?

How do natural resource professionals… manage invasive species?

Wallace et al., in prep

MODIS EVI In-situ % green

Precipitation

16-day composites 250 m pixel

In-situ % green

How do natural resource professionals… determine species vulnerability?

How do natural resource professionals… plug into phenology monitoring and science?

www.usanpn.org/fws

www.usanpn.org/appalachian

How do natural resource professionals… cross organizations and geographies?

Outline

• IM&A in the USFS context

• The National Phenology Network

• Nature's Notebook: A project of the USA-NPN

• Data applications

• R9 pilot project

NFS R9 Partnership…helping achieve Scorecard & Planning Rule requirements

Develop an understanding of fundamental questions about how organisms are responding to changes in climate (SC Element 8 on monitoring).

Inform management decisions (PR monitoring reqs for

species indicators, invasive species, climate change). Facilitate the establishment of partnerships across the

landscape (PR monitoring req for collaboration). Facilitate public outreach & engagement (PR

monitoring reqs for visitor use & satisfaction of recreation objectives).

www.usanpn.org/usfs

Form working group consisting of interested forests to explore implementation of phenology monitoring: Meet monthly (3x to-date) Learn how NPS & FWS are partnering with NPN Select pilot forest to investigate how an existing monitoring program might be adapted: Ottawa NF

Next Steps: • Jointly develop plan for Ottawa NF pilot study • Provide preliminary training webinars for Region • Jointly develop information sheet(s)

www.usanpn.org/usfs

NFS R9 Partnership…helping achieve Scorecard & Planning Rule requirements

• Goal 1: Relevant and credible information applied to priority issues

• Goal 2: Inclusive and comprehensive system across organizational and geographic boundaries

• Goal 3: Responsive and adaptive to changing management needs: social, cultural, ecological & agency

IM&A, NPN and Nature's Notebook…

"…the best science for adaptation will be conceived in strong adaptive research-management partnerships. We must find new ways for scientists, managers, and citizens to work together to pool their observational powers and intelligence to continually reexamine the realities of forest systems." - D. Cleaves in Peterson et al. 2014

Thank you…

Integrate

Communicate Forecast

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a project of the USA-NPN

"Aggregate"

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Derive Add value

API

USGS GDP

Archive

Applied information Management

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S2979604.shtml?cat=1

How do natural resource professionals… improve urban water quality?

How do natural resource professionals… communicate climate change?

Next up:

How do natural resource professionals… engage the next generation?

www.usanpn.org/nn/mobile-apps

How do natural resource professionals… develop a diverse workforce?

Credit: Carolyn Enquist

How do natural resource professionals… help educators implement programs?

www.usanpn.org/education