Free Event Friday, February 8th: The California Phenology Project

The California Phenology Project: Linking plant phenology to climate change through citizen science

 

Please welcome Liz Matthews, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Associate of the California Phenology Project

Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology

University of California, Santa Barbara

Date: Friday, February 8, 2013

Time: 4:00-5:00 pm

Location: Holt 170

Fee: Free & Open to the Public

Phenology is the study of seasonal biological events such as the flowering and fruiting of plants; the annual emergence of insect pollinators and pests; and the migration of birds and mammals. Long-term observational studies have documented that phenological patterns respond to environmental variation and climate change, but the majority of these studies represent temperate ecosystems in Eastern North America and Europe. Because phenological monitoring is relatively easy to conduct and straightforward to teach, both professional and citizen scientists can contribute to efforts to track plant and animal phenology and to overcome the geographic limitations of the data that are current available for analyses. In 2010, the National Park Service (NPS) Climate Change Response Program funded the California Phenology Project (CPP; www.usanpn.org/cpp), whose goal is to develop a regional, citizen science-based phenology monitoring program in order to assess the effects of climate change on California’s biodiversity.

For complete details please visit our events calendar at http://www.csuchico.edu/sustainablefuture/events/

This event is sponsored by the Rawlins Endowed Professorship and the Institute for Sustainable Development at CSU, Chico.