From the official USGS press release...

Volunteers across the Nation to Track Climate Clues in Spring Flowers

Starting this week, citizen-scientist volunteers will be able to help
track climate change by observing and recording the timing of flowers and
foliage.

Project BudBurst, operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric
Research (UCAR) and a team of partners including the U.S. Geological
Survey?s USA National Phenology Network, allows U.S. students, gardeners,
and other citizens to enter their observations into an online database
that, over time, will give researchers a more detailed picture of global
climate change.

The project, which will be launched on Feb. 15, will operate year-round so
that early- and late-blooming species in different parts of the country
can be monitored throughout their life cycles. Project BudBurst (
http://www.budburst.org) builds on a pilot program carried out last
spring, when a thousand participants recorded the timing of the leafing
and flowering of hundreds of plant species in 26 states.

The Chicago Botanic Garden, University of Montana, and the USA National
Phenology Network (USA-NPN) are collaborators on Project BudBurst, which
was funded in part with a grant from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management
and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The project is also
supported by the National Science Foundation and Windows to the Universe (
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/), a UCAR-based Web site that will host the
project online as part of its citizen science efforts.

?Climate change may be affecting our backyards and communities in ways
that we don?t even notice,? says project coordinator Sandra Henderson of
UCAR?s Office of Education and Outreach. ?Project BudBurst is designed to
help both adults and children understand the changing relationship among
climate, seasons, and plants, while giving the participants the tools to
communicate their observations to others. Based on the success of last
year?s pilot program, this project is capturing the public?s imagination
in a way we never expected.?

Project Budburst is one of the citizen-science partnerships of the newly
created USA-NPN  (www.usanpn.org), which is managed by the U.S. Geological
Survey, and includes partners such as the National Science Foundation, the
University of Arizona, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and many other
agencies. The goal of the USA-NPN is to engage governmental agencies,
environmental networks and field stations, educational institutions, and
mass participation by citizen scientists in collecting phenological
information on plants and animals.

Phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and
how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in
climate, said Dr. Jake Weltzin, executive director of the USA-NPN.
Examples of phenological events include the timing of leafing and
flowering, agricultural crop stages, insect emergence, and animal
migration.

?By observing these cycles through time, researchers can better understand
and predict global climate change, and monitor drought conditions,
wildfire risk, invasive species, and the spread of infectious diseases,?
said Weltzin. ?In the long-term -- and with enough data -- such
information can help us better understand, mitigate and adapt to ongoing
and future climate change.?

The USA-NPN will begin enlisting the help of working professional
scientists and training citizen volunteers for more intensive
plant-phenology monitoring later this spring. In addition, Weltzin said
USA-NPN is closely collaborating with other already-existing networks ?
such as Project Budburst ? to maximize the data collected.

How Project Budburst Works

As described on the Project BudBurst webpage, each participant selects one
or more plants to observe. Participants begin checking their plants at
least a week before the average date of budburst -- the point when the
buds have opened and leaves are visible. After budburst, participants
continue to observe the tree or flower for later events, such as the first
leaf, first flower and, eventually, seed dispersal. When participants
submit their records online, they can view maps of these phenological
events across the United States.

Along with the partners noted above, Project BudBurst collaborators
include the Plant Conservation Alliance and the universities of Arizona;
California, Santa Barbara; Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and Wisconsin-Madison.

USGS provides science for a changing world. For more information visit
www.usgs.gov.

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