Dear Ecologgers We are conducting a "near" remote sensing project to monitor vegetation phenology using webcam images. We have established a network of about a dozen sites in the northeastern US and adjacent Canada, and we are archiving daily images from these cameras (for a map of sites, and some sample images, see http://www.forest.sr.unh.edu/richardson/#Towercam).
By separating camera images into red, green and blue color channels, we are able to extract seasonal signals of spring green-up as well as autumn coloration and senescence (see my 2007 paper in Oecologia for details). I would like to take advantage of the great number of webcams that are already out there to expand this network to a national - or even continental - scale, and am writing this email to invite your participation and involvement. I would like to mirror your webcam images on our site, conduct our color channel analysis on those images, and build a long-term archive of these data. I am particularly interested in camera images from field stations or established research sites (especially if on-the-ground phenology observations according to National Phenology Network protocols could be made), where the field of view is dominated by natural vegetation (particularly forest canopies). Images need to be of at least moderate resolution (640x480 pixels at a minimum; 1 MP or greater preferred), have reasonably good detail, not be contaminated by lens flare, and should be available daily by ftp or a web site. If you do not have a camera at your research site but would like to add one, I can make recommendations for manufacturers and model numbers. If you do not have a camera at your research site but know of cameras that meet my criteria, I would also be very grateful to hear from you. Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you. Andrew Richardson ************************************************** Andrew D. Richardson Complex Systems Research Center University of New Hampshire Morse Hall, 39 College Road Durham, NH 03824 Voice: 603-868-7654 Fax: 603-862-0188 Home page: www.forest.sr.unh.edu/richardson/
