COST 725

Abk.

COST725

Themenbereich

Phänologie, Klimatologie, Europa

Status

In Arbeit

Zusammenfassung

COST-Projekt

In most European countries, phenological data are collected or have been collected in the past over several decades. Within these different phenological programs, the vegetation cycle of plants is usually observed (native, agricultural plants and fruits) and in some countries also the cyclic animal behavior like bird migration, egg laying or insect appearance etc. This initiated COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) activity is restricted to vegetation-phenology.

The basic idea of the Action is as a starting point to build a reference data set of selected species and phases that have been observed in European countries over a common reference period of at least one decade but preferably longer, using the BBCH code which was applied on pheno-phases observed in different countries by the German Weather Service (DWD). This common database should be filled each year with observations from the member countries supplying an up to date status to various users.

The observed phases span the whole vegetation period starting in early spring (i.e. first flowers of hazelnut or snowdrop), proceeding to spring (i.e. leaf unfolding of native trees, first flowers of fruit trees, sowing of summer crops) coming to summer (ripening and harvesting of fruits or crops) and ending in fall with leaf-coloring and leaf fall. The plant development is driven mainly by weather and other environmental factors. The different phases can be used to define the start and end of vegetation cycles and to separate natural seasons.

Phenological phases reflect among other things the environmental characteristics of the climate in the region where they occur. Consequently, long series of phenological observations may be used for the detection of climate variability or climate change.

The actual timing of these events is also of importance for issues in our everyday life like education and public awareness, agriculture, human health, tourism and recreation, bio-diversity/ecology, and may be more.

Ausgangssituation

Monitoring phenological phases is carried out in many European countries like Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and others. Each country has its own database, in some cases still on paper, mostly on databank-systems, going back in many cases to the 1950s and a few very long time-series from single locations like bud burst of horse chestnut in Geneva since 1808 (Defila C., 2001).

Besides the scientific research in phenology that is now focused on climate warming and its impact on vegetation (i.e. Menzel A., Fabian, P. 1999), pheno-data are used for crop modeling (Valter J., Kopecka, V., 2000), pollen forecast (Chuine I., 2002) and general information to the public via media (newspaper, TV, radio.., i.e. Menzel A., Fabian P.) and in schools (i.e. Koch E., 2000). The observations should have been made following the same or similar or at least comparable rules and quality checks.

The second idea is to assess and harmonize the different observation rules to come (in the long end) to a recommendation for a common reference manual for phenological observations similar to the guidelines for meteorological and climatological observations by the World Meteorological organization (WMO).

Previous research using phenological data was mainly scattered into various national activities. Most of these activities were initiated by National Hydro-Meteorological Services (NHMSs) and dedicated to support the national agronomy. Stimulated by a recommendation of WMO, a network of Phenological Gardens IPG (International...Phenological...Gardens...) was established in 1975 by national NHMSs.

The basic idea behind the establishment of this network was the observation of cloned plants under different climates in the whole of Europe (from Finland to Greece and from Ireland to Russia) excluding genetic differences. In the meantime, the IPG network was assigned to the supervision of the Humboldt University Berlin, Germany. The IPG data are used for scientific purposes. But the IPG network is rather coarse compared to the complete phenological networks of most NHMSs in Europe.

After a period of reduction of the density of phenological networks and even cancelling all national observations in some countries in the 1980ies, new interest in phenology grew in the following decade due to the new interest in climate change issues. The public became more sensitive to the problems of climate variability and climate change, which can be monitored easily by phenological data, provided that the data are available from long series in a dense network. Regional maps of the NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, derived from satellite measurements) started to provide impressive display of the progression of the ‘green wave’ in springtime.

This COST Action 725 is an original effort to set up a comprehensive European reference data set including metadata, that can be used for scientific, especially climatological purposes including climate monitoring. Various application, like mapping and interpolation, trend analyses and investigations on possible correlations with other climate elements will be developed, validated and disseminated . Thus, the COST Action would support other projects like EPN and TIMING and equally benefits from them by exchange of experiences and the cross check of results.

Projektziele

The main objective of the Action is to establish a European reference data set of phenological observations, that can be used for climatological purposes, especially climate monitoring, and detection of changes.

Secondary objectives lie in the harmonisation of techniques for:

the definition of species and phases, that shall be observed in a harmonised way
developing recommendations for monitoring and collection procedures (methodologies, sampling density and frequency, etc.)
selection criteria of data for further consideration
the quality control of observations

Methodik

The Action starts with an inventory of all available phenological data including metadata in the participating countries and as much as possible in other countries. Scientific activities will grossly be divided into 3 main levels :

Ensuring comprehensive, dedicated and integrated collection of data and information to generate a quality controlled and transparent database,
Developing best practices for further harmonisation of the database and for its future enlargement and extension, and
Developing various applications and techniques (e.g., mapping) to extract added-value information from the database.

Abwicklung

COST, domain ESSEM Earth System Science and Environmental Management

Ergebnisse

Phenological Stations

Projektbeginn

04.2004

Projektende

03.2009

Projektteam

Ansprechpartner	Abteilung	Fachgebiet	E-Mail	Telefon
Koch Elisabeth Dr.	Fachabteilung Klima	Leitung		+43 1 36026 2201
Lipa Wolfgang Dr.	Abteilung Datenprüfung	Leitung		+43 1 36026 2207

Projektpartner

26 Teilnehmerstaaten

Publikationen

Koch E., Dittmann, E., Lipa W., Menzel, A., Vliet, Arnold van: COST 725 Establishing a European phenological data platform for climatological applications. Annalen der Meteorologie 41, Vl 2, 554-558; DWD, 2005

MENZEL, A, T. H. SPARKS, N. ESTRELLA, E. KOCH, A. AASA, R. AHAS, K. ALM-KÜBLER, P. BISSOLLI, O. BRASLAVSKÁ, A. BRIEDE, F. M. CHMIELEWSKI, Z. CREPINSEK, Y. CURNEL, Å. DAHL, C. DEFILA, A. DONNELLY, Y. FILELLA, K. JATCZAK, F. MÅGE, A. MESTRE, Ø. NORDLI, J. PEÑUELAS, P. PIRINEN, V. REMISOVÁ, H. SCHEIFINGER, M. STRIZ, A. SUSNIK, F.-E. WIELGOLASKI, A. V. VLIET, S. ZACH, A. ZUST (2006): European phenological response to climate change matches the warming pattern, Global Change Biology 12

Website

http://www.cost.esf.org/index.php