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 This past summer, Acadia Partners provided a research fellowship to
Dr. Abe Miller-Rushing to support his work at SERC in developing ways
to engage volunteers in phenology -- the study of seasonal biological
events such as leaf out, migration, and reproduction. At Acadia,
Dr. Miller-Rushing involved a number of different kinds of volunteers
in collecting information about both plants and animals in the park.
We funded this work as a pilot study. Our goal was to provide
early support for Dr. Miller Rushing and is colleagues at the USA
National Phenology Network so that they could develop their ideas and
-- hopefully -- seek additional, more substantial funding. We
have just learned that Dr. Miller-Rushing and his colleagues have
successfully secured additional support from the US Geological Survey
for the next three years. We congratulate them, and look forward
to working with them over the coming summers. Last summer's work focused on the following goals:
- Find the appropriate fit for phenology monitoring and use of
phenology data within the current monitoring, research, management, and
education activities at various national parks.
- Adapt and test existing monitoring protocols to evaluate their
suitability in tracking key phenological events of target plants and
animals.
- Identify and monitor the phenology of target species in various
parks.
- Educate the public, particularly volunteers making observations.
- Provide a template for future phenology monitoring at national
parks throughout the United States.
In his report on the project, Dr. Miller-Rushing described the
importance of this work as follows:
"The timing of many phenological events
is changing rapidly in response to changing climate conditions.
Pollination, pest outbreaks, predator-prey relationships, species
ranges, and water and carbon cycles all depend on phenology, and are
all changing significantly because of recent changes in the timing of
phenological events. Particularly important to natural resource
managers, the abundance of a population depends on its phenology and
the phenologies of the species with which it interacts. If, for
example, a bird species depends on caterpillars for food during the
spring breeding season, the bird’s population size may decline if the
caterpillar population peaks prior to the breeding season. Examples of
temporal mismatches like this one have already been documented in North
America and elsewhere. "
We are delighted to learn of the USA National Phenology Network's
success in securing additional funding beyond the pilot stage and are
very pleased to have been part of their start-up research effort.
We look forward to working more with Dr. Miller-Rushing and his
colleagues in the coming years.
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