{"id":5565,"date":"2019-09-25T12:07:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T09:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=5565"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:33","slug":"why-phenology-is-key-in-tracking-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/09\/25\/why-phenology-is-key-in-tracking-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Phenology is Key in Tracking Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>By <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/jennifer-fitchett-317966\"><strong><em>Jennifer Fitchett<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phenology is the timing of annually recurrent&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/0309133315578940\">biological events<\/a>. These include the timing of spring blossoming, fruit development in summer and leaf colouration in autumn. In animals it can include the timing of migration, hibernation, hatching, and mating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The timing of these phenological events is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0168192312002869\">controlled<\/a>&nbsp;by climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The longest phenological record derives from the Japanese cherry festival, dating back to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1002\/joc.1594\">ninth century<\/a>. The date of flowering, and hence the timing of the festival, has been affected over the centuries by changes in spring temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the United Kingdom, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/2261570?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents\">Marsham record<\/a>&nbsp;comprises two centuries of phenological records captured by generations of the Marsham family, which scientists found captured advances in phenological events driven by changes in temperature and rainfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A paper written eight years ago in South Africa showed how apple and pear trees in the southwestern Cape were&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0168192310002893\">flowering earlier<\/a>&nbsp;due to changes in temperature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These changes in the timing of phenological events are important to monitor. Phenology is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1111\/ele.12135\">argued<\/a>\u00a0to be one of the most sensitive biological indicators of climate change. Phenological shifts are often\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1023\/A:1016125215496.pdf\">detected<\/a>\u00a0long before irreversible ecosystem responses are apparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/explainer-why-phenology-is-key-in-tracking-climate-change-123783\">Read more&#8230; <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jennifer Fitchett Phenology is the timing of annually recurrent&nbsp;biological events. These include the timing of spring blossoming, fruit development in summer and leaf colouration in autumn. In animals it&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}