Jake F. WeltzinUnited States Geological Survey

Mark D. SchwartzUniversity of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

www.usanpn.org

The RCN & the USA-NPN

Founding & Current Status

USA-NPN Development HistoryDate Event

1956-1961 Regional lilac networks founded across USA

1987 Schwartz takes charge of eastern lilac network

1994 Schwartz (1994) proposes national network concept

February 2002 Schwartz starts building USA-NPN infrastructure

November 2004 Betancourt and Schwartz begin discussion

December 2004 Prototype USA-NPN web page launched

August 2005 First USA-NPN Planning Workshop (Tucson, AZ)

March 2006 USA-NPN Implementation Team Meeting (Tucson)

August-September 2006 USGS and Univ. of Arizona approved Nat. Coord. Office plan

October 2006 Second USA-NPN Planning Workshop (Milwaukee, WI)

December 2006 RCN (Res. Coord. Network, $500K/5 years) funded by NSF

January 2007 USA-NPN Nat. Coord. Office opened and staffed in Tucson

August 2007 First USA-NPN RCN Annual Meeting (Milwaukee)

USA-NPN Development HistoryDate Event

August 2007 Executive Director Jake Weltzin assumes position

January 2008 Founding Board of Directors (BOD) meeting (Tucson)

May 2008 New web pages launched for initial testing

September 2008 Second USA-NPN RCN Annual Meeting (Milwaukee)

September 2008 USA-NPN Constitution approved by Founding BOD

January 2009 Constitutional Board of Directors take office

February 2009 Expanded USA-NPN Plant Phenology Program launched

March 2009 Data ingest module added to USA-NPN web pages

May 2009 Cloned lilacs available for direct sale to the public

July 2009 USA-NPN registered observers reach 2500 nationwide

October 2009 Third USA-NPN RCN Annual Meeting (Milwaukee)

February 2010 Planned launch of USA-NPN Animal Phenology Program

“Phenology…is perhaps the simplest process in which to track changes in the ecology of species

in response to climate change.” (IPCC 2007)

A new data resource—a national network of integrated phenological observations across

space and time

Key Goal

Understand how plants, animals and landscapes respond to environmental variation and climate change

• Create a scientifically based phenology network with broad participation

• Create and maintain a national phenology information management system

• Develop and promote standardized monitoring protocols

• Integrate observations of plants, animals & landscapes across space & time

• Create decision support tools for application of phenology data

Core functions

• National-scale science and monitoring initiative

• Agencies, NGOs, academia, the public

• Integrates with other science/monitoring networks

• Target: 100,000 observation locations

• Plants + animals; contemporary + legacy data

• Education & outreach

• Integration across spatial and temporal scales

• Business to Business + Business to Customer

NPN in a nutshell

Key sponsors and collaborators…

Native American

Tribes

Native American

Tribes

ScientistsScientistsSpecializedNetworks

SpecializedNetworks

PublicAgencies

PublicAgencies

NGOsNGOs

Educators

Educators

CitizenScientists

CitizenScientists National

Coordinating Office

Information ManagementMonitoring Programs

CommunicationsResource ManagersResource Managers

Services for stakeholders

• Beginning to advanced protocols

• Public, managers & scientists

• 215 specified species

• Status monitoring

• Sample intensity + absence data

Plant Phenology Monitoring System

• 158 species selected according to a priori criteria

• 120 expert reviewers

• Standardized monitoring protocols

• Independent review workshop

• 2010 as on-line beta

Animal Phenology Monitoring System

• Scaling of in-situ observations

• Validation of remote imagery

• Development of standards

• Information & data clearinghouse

• Research directions and priorities

Land-surface Phenology Program

2005 Start of Season (SOS)

• Create a National Phenology Information Management System

• Create a National Phenology Monitoring System

• Develop Partnerships

• Facilitate Outreach and Education

• Facilitate Research

• Facilitate Decision Support

Strategic Plan Elements

Information management

Decision- support

Research

Education

Search

Synthesis

Visualizations

Work platform

Datasets

Products

NCO Information Management SystemData

Contemp-orary

Legacy

Partners

Ancillary

Data curation

User interface

Databases

USA National Phenology Network

Metadata

Role of NCO @ RCN and NPA

• RCN meeting support• RCN web-page (www.usanpn.org/?q=rcn-2009)

• Agenda• Logistics• Products• Webinars

• Facilitate NPA• Information management• Tools• Communications

• Science expertise

• Programmatic planning/development (you talk, we listen)