I took my phenological walk on April first, and during this time I observed phenological changes of several Tree species around campus. Overall the trees all still seemed dormant, and for the most part, had not yet begun to bun or leaf yet. The trees that did have small but noticeable changes was white oak and red oak.
About a quarter of the white oak trees I saw had some leaves, and some of them also had several fruits. The Red oak trees I saw has some seed/fruit droop under the tree.
After my walk I took some time to explore the NPN’s website, and the most interesting element i found was the data maps that showed when each parts of the US experienced their bloom return, and leaf return. This map also showed how early the phenological change was compared to historic data. I think this is relevant to climate change because we know that even small temperature changes can lead to large phonological imbalances in animal and plant life cycles.
24 Apr