Phenology for the Win
Happy June everyone! We're so thrilled to see how the project is already growing. We're approaching 1000 observations which is a wonderful milestone!
I wanted to write about a big aspect of our project here, which is phenology. Phenology is the study of seasonal biological events in an organism's life cycle. In the context of this project, we are looking at the budding, flowering, and fruiting stages of common woodland plants. Learning about when, where, and how fast certain events are occuring can help us understand how native plants are responding to shorter springs due to climate change.
Most of our target species (seen in our Project List) have easily identifiable stages, but some may need a closer look. For example, red trillium, one of the most common plants you'll find on your outings has distinct budding, flowering and fruiting:
(Photo Credits: Dan Bensonoff, Lee Thomas and David Reik via iNaturalist)
Canadian bunchberry may need a closer look however, as its false flower which can be deceiving. The flowers and immature fruits are small, so getting a close-up photo is important!
(Photo Credits: Lynn Harper, Luciana Ranelli and Jack Cadwell via iNaturalist)
When making an observation, if you can recognize the phenology stage of your plant, please record it! These observation fields will pop up when you select our project during your submission. You can fill them out to the best of your ability, but no worries if you're not sure - we have dedicated curators who are happy to take a look and assign the fields for you. Thank you for helping our research and showing how truly beautiful the New England Trail Corridor truly is! We look forward to your continued observations.
Comentarios
Agregar un comentario