NOAA weather station monitoring

Knowledge graph centered on NOAA weather station monitoring with 75 nodes and 261 connections. Top connected: Effects of climate change on phenology, frost dama, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Gothic, Marmota, Yellow-bellied Marmot.

Method synopsis

Long-term systematic collection of first sighting and median activity dates for plants, insects, mammals, amphibians and birds in a high-elevation montane ecosystem. Standardized protocols track flowering times, insect emergence, mammal pup emergence, amphibian reproduction stages, and bird arrival dates.

Synthesized from method descriptions across 12 papers using this protocol.

Procedure from a recent peer-reviewed implementation

Steps below were extracted from the most recent peer-reviewed implementation of this protocol in the corpus — Current and lagged climate affects phenology across diverse taxonomic groups (2023), Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The protocol was originally introduced by Early snowmelt projected to cause population decline in a subalpine plant (2019), PNAS. Implementations in other papers (listed below) may differ.

1. Collect phenological data
   Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory collected phenological data on a variety of taxonomic groups since 1975. Data on first sightings each year were available for plants, insects, mammals, amphibians and birds, whereas median activity data were available only for plants, insects and mammals. Plant first sighting was the first flowering day for each species and median activity was the median date between first and last flower. Insect first sighting was observation of first egg or first adult emergence, depending on the species. Median insect activity was the day of maximum abundance during the season. Mammalian first sighting data were first pup emergence for different sets of insect species. Mammalian median activity data were available for different sets of species. Amphibian first sightings included first egg, day of hatching, and first adult sighting. Bird first sightings were spring arrival dates.
   Quantities: 10,812 phenological events across 45 years (1975-2020) for 56 species total: 30 plant species, 7 insect species, 2 mammal species, 1 amphibian species, 16 bird speciesDuration: 45 years (1975-2020), annual observationsConditions: High-elevation montane habitat, approximately 2945 m above sea-level up to 3414 m for amphibians, with persistent snowpack from November through May
   Equipment: systematic observation protocols

Typical Equipment

• systematic observation protocols

Output Measurements

• first flowering dates
• median flowering dates
• first insect sighting
• median insect activity
• first mammal pup emergence
• first amphibian sighting
• bird spring arrival dates

Papers Using This Protocol (12)

Species Studied With This Protocol

Places Where Used