Parks use phenology to improve management and communicate climate change
Miller-Rushing A, Evenden A, Gross J, Mitchell B, Sachs S. 2011. Parks use phenology to improve management and communicate climate change. Park Science. 28(2):65–71
Climate change presents the dual challenges of (1) understanding its effects and how to manage them and (2) communicating climate change science to promote understanding and action. Here we describe one approach to addressing those challenges: studying climate-driven changes in phenology—the timing of seasonal biological events, such as flowering and migrations. Phenology is critical to people and the functioning of ecosystems, and it is changing wherever climate is changing. Thus it provides information for managers and local examples of effects of climate change that are relevant to park visitors and the communities surrounding parks. Parks, Research Learning Centers, Inventory and Monitoring Networks, and Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units across the country are piloting methods, such as citizen science and remote sensing, for monitoring phenology and using the results to inform science, management, and education. These activities are gaining momentum and are poised to make significant contributions to our understanding of the effects of climate change and how best to communicate climate change science to the public.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Miller-Rushing, Abraham; Evenden, Angela; Gross, John; Mitchell, Brian; Sachs, Susan
- Units
- ACAD , GRSM , LOWE , NRSS , SAMO
- Keywords
- Acadia NP, citizen science, Climate Change, cooperative ecosystem studies units, Great Smoky Mountains NP, inventory and monitoring networks, Lowell NHP, phenology monitoring, PWR-toolkit, PWR-toolkit-interpretation, Research Learning Centers, Santa Monica Mountains NRA, technique