Earth Equity News

Citizen Scientists Invited to Track Seasonal Signs of Climate Change. ENS, March 5, 2009."Citizen scientists are being recruited to help scientists observe the effects of climate change on the behavior of plant and animal species found across the United States. Volunteers are asked to study the seasonal cycles of plant and animals -- the first leafing, first flowering, and first fruit ripening of plants, and animals reproducing, migrating and hibernating -- a science known as phenology. A consortium of government, academic and citizen scientists known as the USA-National Phenology Network, or USA-NPN, is launching the new national program built on volunteer observations of these seasonal events... Scientists and resource managers will use these observations to track effects of climate change on the Earth's living systems. The observations will be analyzed against satellite-generated remote sensing data and weather data, then compared with detailed ecological studies... Based at the University of Arizona in Tucson, the USA-NPN includes collaborations among the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Arizona, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and The Wildlife Society."