[Pollinator] Daily Camera: Citizens asked to keep eye on plants

[Jennifer Tsang]

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/feb/19/citizens-asked-to-keep-eye-on-pl
ants/


Citizens asked to keep eye on plants


Researchers to track climate's effects on flora


By Steve Graff For the Camera
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 

Scientists are asking people to keep an eye on their gardens to help track
climate change.

www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/budburst

Last week, Boulder's University Corp. for Atmospheric Research began Project
BudBurst, a nationwide initiative that has "citizen scientists" monitoring
their favorite patches of flowers so researchers can better understand the
climate's effect on plant life cycles.

"Climate change may be affecting our backyards and communities in ways that
we don't even notice," Sandra Henderson, of UCAR's Office of Education and
Outreach, said in a news release. "Project BudBurst is designed to help both
adults and children understand the changing relationship among climate,
seasons and plants, while giving the participants the tools to communicate
their observations to others."

Over the next year, volunteers will record their observations, including
time of bloom, first leaf and flower and eventually seed dispersal, on a
UCAR-based Web site at www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/budburst.

"Our primary mission is to educate and raise awareness about climate
change," Henderson said. "We want people outside observing their
environment."

The data will also allow for researchers, including the National Phenology
Network, to learn how plants across the country are responding to climate
change, which has been linked to extended growing seasons and migration of
plants to higher elevations.

Early cues in some plants can affect their reproduction, as well, said Pam
Diggle, a plant biologist and professor at the University of Colorado. If a
plant blooms before its pollinator -- for instance, a butterfly -- comes
out, a mismatch may occur and can decrease the chance of seed dispersal, she
said.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the country's cherry blossoms
now bloom four days earlier than they did in the 1950s.

Project BudBurst comes after a pilot program last spring, when thousands of
people recorded the life cycles of several hundred plant species in 26
states.

"We had everybody from 10-year-old kids to people with Ph.D.'s in botany,"
Henderson said.

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