FIELD NOTES: Record Keeping
~ Jim Eagleman
My smartphone now keeps track of everything. On a search for a picture recently, I saw a record of photos I took much earlier, arranged by date and place, nicely catalogued, clear, and precise. Looking at photos from a year ago confirmed my hunch about this spring. Comparatively, we are later in witnessing the arrival of certain flowers, plants, and birds. This should come as little surprise to us. We know there is always variation in weather, temperature, and rainfall from one year to the next. Narrowing it down, we know generally that by Easter, we can put away the snow shovel and bring out the garden hose. We anxiously look to outside activities with the smell of new earth and the sight of color. The Farmer’ s Almanac suggests a range of days and daylight hours for gardening. It seems gardening and proper planting time have served as true tests over time. To the early settler, plant on the wrong day, despite moon phases and folklore, and your destiny was set. The beginning of our agrarian society, when one’ s own food production was critical, made this book valuable. The Almanac over the years, among other things historic, has helped scientists look closer to changing trends. Record keeping by today’ s biologists and others has become standard behavior— it is part of their DNA, what they do, how they live, even how they think. Many of my biologist friends keep a notebook handy. Curious of changes and happenings, early historians and scientists also kept notes from what they observed. Museums display these journals and notes allowing an appreciation of their character. Nature lovers are also likely to keep notes.
Phenology is the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate, and plant and animal life. Nature responds to external stimuli— the most important being weather. Weather changes the environment, which is made up of habitats. As weather conditions
change, habitats become more or less suited to birds, plants, and animals. Habitats affect ranges, where things live. Ranges can also show where historic niches existed. Does the white-flowering dogwood, for example, still occupy the same place? When something occupies a consistent space we assume everything it needs is still provided. If requirements aren’ t present in the same proportion or approximate number, something has happened. Weather most likely causes the change.
The National Phenology Network, < usanpn. org >, acts as a national indicator, with a website banner: Taking the Pulse of our Planet. It has taken record-keeping to a new level. A US Global Change Research Program released the first 14 indicators of climate change. Among these is a Start of Spring indicator, which reflects the accumulation of heat sufficient to initiate leafing and flowering in temperaturesensitive plants. The indicator is calculated and validated using data and models curated by the USA-NPN, including observations of plant leaf-out and flowering collected by the public( citizen science) in the Nature Notebook program.
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34 Our Brown County • May / June 2018