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ESIIL Macrophenology Working Group

Welcome to the Macrophenology Working Group repository, part of the Environmental Data Science Innovation and Inclusion Lab (ESIIL). This repository serves as the central hub for our working group, hosting our project description, proposals, member bios, codebase, and more.

Our Project

Given the sensitivity of plant phenology to environmental change, there is an urgent need to quantify plant phenological dynamics to better understand and predict this societally important biological phenomenon. For example, berry phenology is important to Indigenous peoples of Alaska, as are the timing of flowering and fruiting of many native species. Various types of data capture information on plant phenology (e.g., community science observations, observatory network data, remotely sensed observations, herbarium specimens); but rarely are these data types integrated. Without such integration, our knowledge of changes in phenology across time and space is limited. For instance, it is unknown how phenological change will affect species distributions and developmental events in ecosystems or if it will differentially favor nonnative species. Such understanding will help predict shifts in species distributions as well as aid in conservation. We will focus on the interaction between phenological shifts and species range shifts in response to climate change, using multiple sources of data and co-production with Indigenous peoples to further knowledge of how climatic change may alter plant phenology and range changes.

Timeline: - Workshop #1: In-person, Summer 2024 - Workshop #2: Virtual, Spring 2025 - Workshop #3: In-person, Fall 2025

Project Proposal

Here is our project proposal

Group Members

  • Sydne Record: Working Group Co-Leader; Associate Professor, University of Maine
  • Kai Zhu: Working Group Co-Leader; Advise the Across spp CTI subgroup; Associate Professor, University of Michigan
  • Lizbeth Amador: Co-lead of the Across spp SDM subgroup; Ph.D. candidate, University of Maine Orono
  • Rohit Jha: Co-lead of the Across spp SDM subgroup; Ph.D. student, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
  • Yi Liu: Co-lead of the Across spp CTI subgroup; Ph.D. candidate, University of Michigan
  • Betsy von Holle: Research Associate, George Washington University
  • Katie Jones: Staff Scientist, National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), Battelle, Boulder CO
  • Daijiang Li: Assistant Professor, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
  • Eric Sokol: Working Group Tech Lead; Staff Scientist, National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), Battelle, Boulder, CO

Deliverables Plan:

Code Repository

This section of the repository will include all the code developed for the project. You can structure it as follows:

  • Analysis Code: Scripts for data analysis, statistical modeling, etc.
  • Data Processing: Scripts for cleaning, merging, and managing datasets.
  • Visualization: Code for creating figures, charts, and interactive visualizations.

Meeting Notes and Agendas

Virtual Meetings:

In Person Meetings:

Contributing to This Repository

We welcome contributions from all group members. To maintain the quality and integrity of the repository, please adhere to the following guidelines:

  • Make sure all commits have a clear and concise message.
  • Document any major changes or decisions in the meeting notes.
  • Review and merge changes through pull requests to ensure oversight.

Getting Help

If you encounter any issues or have questions about how to contribute, please refer to the ESIIL Support Page or contact the repository maintainers directly.

Last update: 2025-03-11