We invite you to participate in the AGU Fall Meeting special session B08: TOWARD PHENOLOGICAL ASSESSMENTS: REGIONAL, NATIONAL, GLOBAL
Phenology is the gateway to climatic effects on both managed and unmanaged ecosystems. Phenology affects such things as the planting, maturation, and harvesting of food and fiber crops, pollination, timing and magnitude of allergies and disease, recreation and tourism, water quantity and quality, and ecosystem function and resilience. Changes in phenologies have already manifested myriad effects of directional climate change and, as changes continue, it is critical to establish a comprehensive suite of benchmarks to track conditions and consequences. Adaptation to climatic variability and change will require integration of phenological data and models with climatic forecasts at seasonal to decadal timescales. Thus, we propose the need for a first National Phenological Assessment for the USA. Further, we encourage others to explore what it would take to conduct a Phenological Assessment of their region or nation. Toward these ends, we seek contributions that can assist in the identification and evaluation of indicators of phenological change based on data from diverse fields including, but not restricted to, meteorological and hydrological observations, plant and animal phenologies captured in contemporary and legacy datasets, phenological metrics from remote sensing datastreams, flux tower observations, and GCM and RCM model realizations. We also seek contributions evaluating the covariation between phenological data and large-scale modes of climate variability to help detection and attribution of supposed secular trends and development of short and long-lead forecasts for phenological variations. Finally, we seek contributions that can assist in the identification and evaluation of optimal methods for quantifying and qualifying what constitutes significant statistical and ecological change in phenological indicators, given uncertainties in both data and methods and defined range of natural variability. In short, we encourage contributions from all aspects of phenological investigation regardless of locale. INVITED PRESENTATIONS (confirmed) 1) Mike Dettinger (US Geological Survey): Changing timing of the onset of spring in western North America--An update. 2) Noah Diffenbaugh (Stanford University): Near-term projections of phenologically-important climate variables in the United States 3) Mark Friedl (Boston University): Recent progress estimating phenology from MODIS: Comparison of Collection 5 results with ground data and other sensors 4) Adam Terando (North Carolina State University): How well do GCMs simulate high impact measures of climate change? An assessment of past trends and future projections of agro-climate indices. Abstract deadline: 03 September at 23:59 EDT Submit here: http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm09/program/abstract_submissions.php Submit abstract to Biogeosciences special session B08. If you are not an AGU member and need sponsorship of your abstract or if you have questions about the session, please contact [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. Conveners: Geoffrey M. Henebry, South Dakota State University (lead) Julio L. Betancourt, USGS Kirsten M. de Beurs, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University John E. Gross, National Park Service Mark D. Schwartz, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
