This year, Project BudBurst kicks off on February 15:

Project BudBurst will officially get underway for the 2008 campaign on February 15, 2008. Due to the overwhelming interest in last year’s pilot project, we are very confident that the 2008 campaign will be a success and that the observations reported on the Project BudBurst Web site will be useful to phenologists and climate scientists.
– via BudBurst mailing list

Last year there were reports from participants in 26 states. Ohio and Illinois had the highest rate of participation followed by Utah, Colorado, and Michigan.

This year’s earlier start date is one of several enhancements over last year’s pilot program:

• Expanded time, starting February 15th and continuing until the fall.
• A myBudBurst member registration space to save your observation sites and plants online as you monitor phenological changes throughout the year and for future years.
• Expanded targeted species list, including 19 calibration species from the National Phenology Network.
• Monthly photos of the latest plants blooming.
• Online geolocator to obtain latitude and longitude coordinates for observation sites

Project BudBurst is a national field campaign for citizen scientists designed to engage the public in the collection of important climate change data based on the timing of leafing and flowering of trees and flowers. Last year’s inaugural event drew thousands of people of all ages taking careful observations of the /phenological/ events such as the first bud burst, first leafing, first flower, and seed or fruit dispersal of a diversity of tree and flower species, including weeds and ornamentals. Your help in making observations and sharing information about Project BudBurst will help us in making this year even more successful.

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Project BudBurst
U.S. National Phenology network

Yet another Citizen Science resource on the Web, this one can be embraced by all gardeners:

Join us this spring in collecting important climate change data on the timing of leafing and flowering of trees and flowers in your area through Project BudBurst. This national citizen science field campaign targets native tree and flower species across the country. By recording the timing of the leafing and flowering of native species each year, scientists can learn about the prevailing climatic characteristics in a region over time. With your help, we will be compiling valuable environmental information that can be compared to historical records to illustrate the effects of climate change.

I love the subtitle on the home page:

A National Phenology Network Field Campaign for Citizen Scientists

Even if you don’t plan to contribute your own observations, there’s lots of information available on the site. No maps or other data posted yet, since this is just getting started. There’s some good introductory information, and special materials for students and teachers.

Phenology is the study of the timing of life cycle events in plants and animals. In other words, studying the environment to figure out how animals know when it is time to hibernate, and what ‘calendar’ or ‘clock’ plants use to begin flowering, leafing or reproducing.

Phenology is literally “the science of appearance.” Scientists who study phenology – phenologists — are interested in the timing of specific biological events (such as flowering, migration, and reproduction) in relation to changes in season and climate. Seasonal and climatic changes are some of the non-living or abiotic components of the environment that impact the living or biotic components. Seasonal changes can include variations in day length, temperature, and rain or snowfall. In short, phenologists attempt to learn more about the abiotic factors that plants and animals respond to.

– What is Phenology?

via Old House Gardens Newsletter #60, April 2007.

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Project BudBurst

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Project BudBurst