Haggerty helps launch California Phenology Project
To keep tabs on natural schedules in California, researchers at UC Santa Barbara have launched the California Phenology Project. Led by professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Susan Mazer, graduate student Brian Haggerty, and postdoctoral fellow Elizabeth Mathews, the project is observing plants at eight UC Natural Reserves and seven national parks, totaling more than 100 monitoring sites.
Scientists, docents, staff, teachers and other citizen researchers are being trained to track the life stages of several selected plant species found at each site. Thirty plant species are being targeted statewide. The data are then submitted online to the USA National Phenology Network, which makes phenology data from across the country available for education and analysis. The California project already has submitted more than 150,000 observations to the national database since 2011.
