User Training Videos

1. Training Materials

1. Recording Plant Observations

1. This mini-presentation will guide you through the steps of recording your observations of plants at your site.

   This information is also available on USA-NPN website at www.usanpn.org.

 

1. In this presentation, we’ll focus recording your observations of plants using Nature’s Notebook.

 

1. As a part of Nature’s Notebook, you are invited to observe both plants and animals, though you may choose to observe only plants or only animals. Recall the difference in the way we ask you to observe plants and animals using Nature’s Notebook:

   For plants: Observe the same individual plants each time you visit your site. For example, observe the same red maple tree in your backyard all through the year.

   For animals: Create a checklist of animal species and look for all of them each time you visit your site. For example, if your checklist includes robins, wood frogs, and tent caterpillars on it, record whether you saw or heard each of those species anywhere in your site each time you visited.

   This presentation will focus on taking observations on plants.

 

1. Observation considerations

1. This presentation will cover things you will need to know to record plant phenology observations, including how to determine which phenophases to observe, how frequently to make observations, and how to deal with special situations.

 

1. We will also cover documenting details about each site visit on a Cover Sheet.

 

1. Phenophases to observe:

   Check plant profile page:

    http://www.usanpn.org/species_search 

1. To determine which phenophases to look for on your plant and how to recognize them, you can check the plant species profile pages on the USA-NPN website. More information on selecting plant species can be found in the training movie, “Selecting plant or animal species”.

   Here is a screen capture of the plant profile page for Red maple (Acer rubrum). If you choose to monitor Red maple, we are interested in knowing whether you see breaking leaf buds, and leaves each time you visit the plant, as well as some other leaf phenophases not shown in this screen capture.

 

1. Phenophases to observe:

1. We are also interested in knowing whether you observe flowers (which can be opened or unopened), open flowers….

 

1. Phenophases to observe:

1. …fruits (which can be ripe or unripe), and ripe fruits when you visit the plant.  In some cases, fruits are not ripe for very long before they drop from the plant.  If this is the case you can indicate that one or more fruits have dropped since the last time you visited your plant.

   Several phenophases are listed for each plant species. You are not required to observe all of the suggested phenophases for a species. We welcome observations on as many or as few phenophases you feel comfortable with tracking.

   You may wish to print out a copy of the phenophases from your species profile page to take with you to your monitoring site, because in many cases it provides some extra information not included on the datasheet.

 

 

1. Here is a screen capture of what a plant datasheet looks like.

 

1. The phenophases you are recommended to observe are listed on the left.

 

1. Spaces for observation dates are provided across the top of the datasheet.

 

• •Yes (Y) – if the phenophase is occurring 

• •No (N) – if the phenophase is not occurring 

• •Uncertain (?) – if you are not certain whether the phenophase is occurring 

• •Do not record anything if you did not check for this phenophase  

1. For each day that you observe a plant, record the date on your datasheet, and for each phenophase, record either:

 

 

 

 

 

1. It is very important to record your observations at each visit, even if nothing has changed since your last visit! Knowing when a plant is not in a given phenophase is just as important as knowing when one is. This information allows someone using your data to more confidently narrow down the exact date a phenophase began or ended.

 

1. Let’s try this out. Say you have an individual red maple plant in your yard that you would like to monitor. You go out to this plant for the first time to make an observation on May 5. It seems to be in full flower and upon close inspection you see breaking leaf buds.  As of yet you do not see any full leaves or any fruits.

   You compare the phenophase descriptions for this plant to what you see on your plant.

 

1. First, you consider the phenophase “Breaking leaf buds”. For this plant, “Breaking leaf buds” is given this definition: “One or more breaking leaf buds are visible on the plant.  A leaf bud is considered “breaking” once a green leaf tip is visible at the end of the bud, but before the first leaf from the bud has unfolded to expose the leaf stalk (petiole) or leaf base.  For Acer rubrum, leaf tips may appear reddish.” You compare this definition to what you see on your plant. It looks like there are quite a few breaking leaves, more than ten, and none have unfolded yet.

 

1. As this phenophase IS occurring at the time of this observation, you circle “Y” on your datasheet.  You can check your datasheet for recommended intensity notations.  Following this you mark “>10” for your intensity measurements on your datasheet.

 

1. Next, you consider the phenophase “leaves”.

 

1. For this plant, “leaves” is given this definition: “One or more live unfolded leaves are visible on the plant.  A leaf is considered “unfolded” once the leaf stalk (petiole) or leaf base is visible.  New small leaves may need to be bent backwards to see whether the leaf stalk or leaf base is visible. Do not include dried or dead leaves.” You compare this definition to what you see on your plant. You do not see any leaves from the breaking leaf buds that have unfolded to point where the leaf stalk is visible.

 

 

 

1. For flowers you see that your red maple is covered in fresh, open flowers and meets the definition for both “Flowers” and “Open Flowers”.  For “Flowers”, you see “More than 10”, and for “Open flowers”, “Peak Flower” seems to be the best choice to describe your plant on this date.  Although both “More than 10” and “Peak Flower” are accurate in this case, you should choose “Peak flower”. You will choose “More than 10” when the tree is no longer in peak flower, but still has more than ten open flowers.

 

 

1. Next you check for pollen release.  If you can reach a flower, blow on it or shake it and see if pollen falls into your hand.  If you cannot reach the flowers to test them you should leave this phenophase BLANK.  You happen to be able to reach some of the flowers on your red maple.  Of the flowers you can reach the freshest, fully open ones release yellow pollen dust when you blow on them.  More than half of the flowers on the tree seem to be in this fresh, fully open state where you can see pollen release, so your tree meets the requirements for “Peak Pollen”.  

 

 

1. Lastly you check your red maple for fruits.  You do not see any fruits at all, nor did you see fruits on your last visit that might have fallen since then.

 

 

1. We also ask that you provide information about each visit you make to your site on  a Cover Sheet. The purpose of the Cover Sheet is to track the amount of time you contribute to the project, the time and method of any animal observations you make, and snow conditions at your site.

 

 

1. On the Cover Sheet, fill in your…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Next, if you are observing animals, report details about your animal observation methods. Please see presentation 5, “Recording Animal Observations”, for more details.

 

 

 

 

 

1. Here is an example of a Cover Sheet filled in for several days of observations.

 

• •As often as possible 

• •At least once a week 

• •All observations are valuable! 

1. Visit your site and make observations of your plants or animals as often as is possible. Ideally you will be able to make observations at least once a week, but several times a week or even once a day is even better when things are changing quickly.

   Most importantly, you should record all the observations you make – your observations, no matter how often you make them, provide valuable data!

 

1. You should make observations at a time of day that is convenient for you. Since plant activity can vary over the course of the day, it will be helpful if you make your observations consistently around the same time. Most plants and animals on the Nature’s Notebook species list are best observed during daylight hours.

 

1. What if I missed a phenophase?

• •Make a note of it in the comments section of your data form 

 

• •Continue to watch 

• •Make a note of it in the comments section of your data form 

 

1. Once a phenophase has ended you should continue to look for signs of it and record whether or not it is occurring again. Sometimes phenophases will occur a second, third, or even more times in a season, due to pests, rainfall, or other climate conditions.

 

1. In dry climates, some phenophases repeat after multiple rain events. Even in temperate regions, where most plant phenophases predictably begin and end only once in a season, climate change may bring substantial changes to the timing of life cycle events.

 

1. For example, more frequent late frosts or insect defoliation events may cause an increase in multiple episodes of breaking leaf buds for a given plant species in a single season. These plant responses are extremely important to capture!

 

1. This concludes our presentation on making plant phenology observations. Thank you for your time and interest in our program!

 

File Type	application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
File Title	Slide 1
Author	Theresa Crimmins 2
Last Modified By	Alexis Lincicome
File Modified	2011-04-22
File Created	2009-08-21

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