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,
- selection criteria of data for further consideration;
- the quality control of observations;
- commonly used formats of archiving and distribution of data;
- mapping techniques of phenological information and other application methods;
- increasing the knowledge concerning relations between climate and phenological phases.
The above mentioned steps will strongly support the achievement of the main goal of the Action. One practical result of the Action will be the production of a storing device (CD-ROM, DVD or adequate) containing the European reference data set of phenological observations with meta-information. This product will be distributed to all participants in the Action as well as to interested scientists and any other interested individual.
Technical description and implementation
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, methods and techniques for further analyses (e.g., mapping, analysis of changes, combined analysis with climate data) to extract added-value information from the database.
These scientific activities will be handled in three Working Groups:
- WG1: Inventory of data and metadata;
- WG2: Guidelines for data selection, observations and archiving
- WG3: Applications of phenological data (e.g. in climate change research)
The action will focus on the following activities:
COST725 meta analyses, a major contribution to IPCC, WG II report
At the workshop of COST725 in fall 2005 Annette Menzel from the Technical University Munich –(Germany), chair of the working group 3, proposed the idea of an European phenological “meta” analysis. The response to her request for contributions of the COST725 participating countries was enormous. During a Short Time Scientific Mission funded by COST, Menzel and her co-chair of WG3, Tim H. Sparks from the CEH Monks Wood, UK, analyzed the national reports. Shortly after that, in 2006 the COST725 study
European phenological response to climate change matches the warming pattern, Global Change Biology 12, 1969–1976
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
was published and found immediately an European wide echo (e.g. BBC news, CORDIS news).
In the IPCC AR4 WG II report the COST725 study is one of the major contributions for the assessment of observed changes and responses in natural and managed systems, using 125 000 observational series of 542 plant and 19 animal species in 21 European countries for the period 1971-2000.
The aggregation of the time series revealed a strong signal across Europe of changing spring and summer phenology:
Spring and summer exhibited a clear advance by 2.5 days/decade in Europe. Mean autumn trends were close to zero, but suggested more of a delay when the average trend per country was examined (1.3 days/decade).
The patterns of observed changes in spring (leafing, flowering and animal phases) were spatially consistent and matched measured national warming across 19 European countries; thus the phenological evidence quantitatively mirrors regional climate warming. The COST725 results assessed the possible lack of evidence at a continental scale as 20%, since about 80% of spring/summer phases were found to be advancing.
The findings strongly support previous studies in Europe, confirming them as free from bias towards reporting global climate change impacts.
The strong expertise of COST725 members in assessing climate change responses in wild plants, agricultural systems and animals is also demonstrated by 4 COST members being part of the IPCC AR4 WGII Chapter 1 writing team (Lead authors Annette Menzel (Germany), Bernard Seguin (France), Contributing authors Nicole Estrella (Germany), Tim Sparks (UK)).
The COST725 poster is free for download:
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