Sustaining the USA National Phenology Network

The timing of events such as leaf-out, flowering, migration, and hatch are a strong indicator of plant, animal, and ecosystem response to rapidly changing climate conditions. The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) was established with the primary aim of documenting the timing of such seasonal life cycle events in plants and animals. A primary activity of the USA-NPN is to maintain Nature’s Notebook, a phenology observing program used by thousands of citizen- and professional-scientists for collecting and maintaining phenology information, while approachable enough to be used daily by thousands of volunteer data collectors nationwide.

Further, hundreds of higher education institutions and K-12 classrooms nationwide use Nature’s Notebook and consequent data in inquiry-based learning and hands-on exploration of phenology and large datasets. The observations generated through Nature’s Notebook are regularly incorporated into scientific research and publications.

This award will provide short-term, partial support for USA-NPN team activities. This award enables the USA-NPN to continue to offer a wide range of real-time phenology maps and short-term forecasts, maintain the Nature’s Notebook program and infrastructure, support existing Nature’s Notebook participants and group leaders, and continue to engage with science, research, educator, media, and other end-user communities over the next year.

The USA-NPN also offers a growing roster of maps and short-term forecasts to support biological research, planning and management decisions. USA-NPN map and forecast products are also widely referenced in forestry, urban forestry, agriculture, and invasive species management applications. Over the course of the one-year award, we anticipate growing the Nature’s Notebook database by 4M records, to a total of over 30M phenology records while working to secure long-term and sustainable support.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.