Chronicles of nature calendar, a long-term and large-scale multitaxon database on phenology

Abstract

We present an extensive, large-scale, long-term and multitaxon database on phenological and climatic variation, involving 506,186 observation dates acquired in 471 localities in Russian Federation, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. the data cover the period 1890-2018, with 96% of the data being from 1960 onwards. The database is rich in plants, birds and climatic events, but also includes insects, amphibians, reptiles and fungi. the database includes multiple events per species, such as the onset days of leaf unfolding and leaf fall for plants, and the days for first spring and last autumn occurrences for birds. The data were acquired using standardized methods by permanent staff of national parks and nature reserves (87% of the data) and members of a phenological observation network (13% of the data). The database is valuable for exploring how species respond in their phenology to climate change. Large-scale analyses of spatial variation in phenological response can help to better predict the consequences of species and community responses to climate change. #A full list of authors and their affiliations appears at the end of the paper. Data DeSCRiptOR OpeNScientific Data | (2020) 7:47 | https://doi.

Differences in spatial versus temporal reaction norms for spring and autumn phenological events

“…That the current patterns emerged so clearly may be attributed to the extent and depth of our data ( 39 ). Overall, our data stretched over an unusually large geographic area ( Fig.…”

“…2 and ref. 39 ) and were acquired and analyzed in a consistent way ( 39 ) (in contrast to metaanalyses). These aspects will increase the signal to noise ratio.…”

“…A key requirement for the successful application of this approach to resolving patterns across events of different relative timing is the existence of abundant data covering a large geographic area ( 30 , 36 ). The extensive phenological data-collection scheme implemented at hundreds of nature reserves and other monitoring sites within the area of the former Soviet Union offers unique opportunities for addressing community-level phenology across a large space and long time ( 39 ). From this comprehensive dataset spanning 472 monitoring sites, 510,165 events and a time series of up to 118 y ( Fig.…”

“…2 and ref. 39 ), we selected those 178 phenological events for which we have at least 100 data points that represent at least 10 locations ( SI Appendix , Table S1 ). These events concerned 91 distinct taxa ( SI Appendix , Table S1 ).…”

“…A shows the depth of the data and the spatial distribution of monitoring sites, with the size of the symbol proportional to the number of events scored locally. Since the selection of sites differed between events ( 39 ), in A , we have pooled sites located within 300 km from each other for illustration purposes. B shows the mean timing (day of year) of a phenological event: the onset of blooming in dandelion ( Taraxacum officinale ).…”