Harvard Forest

Data Archive

HF258

Eastern Massachusetts Flowering Phenology 1852-2013

Related Publications

Data

• hf258-01: Blue Hills data (preview)
• hf258-02: GHCN data (preview)
• hf258-03: herbarium data (preview)
• hf258-04: field data (preview)
• hf258-05: eastern Massachusetts flowering phenology analysis

Overview

• Lead: Charles Davis, Aaron Ellison
• Investigators: Bryan Connolly, Courland Kelly, Charles Willis
• Contact: Information Manager
• Start date: 1852
• End date: 2013
• Status: complete
• Location: Eastern Massachusetts
• Latitude: +41.3 to +42.9 degrees
• Longitude: -73.5 to -69.9 degrees
• Elevation: 0 to 600 meter
• Datum: WGS84
• Taxa: Aquilegia canadensis, Aralia nudicaulis, Arethusa bulbosa, Barbarea vulgaris, Calopogon tuberosus, Chelidonium majus, Corallorhiza maculata, Cypripedium acaule, Daucus carota, Gaultheria procumbens, Gaylussacia baccata, Iris prismatica, Platanthera grandiflora, Platanthera lacera, Platanthera psycodes, Pogonia ophioglossoides, Ranunculus acris, Vaccinium angustifolium, Vicia cracca
• Release date: 2023
• Language: English
• EML file: knb-lter-hfr.258.6
• DOI: digital object identifier
• EDI: data package
• DataONE: data package
• Related links:
• Canopy Phenology and Greenness Indices at 13 Sites across North America 2003-2012
• Canopy Phenology, Remote Sensing and Microclimate at Harvard Forest since 2006
• PhenoCam Images and Canopy Phenology at Harvard Forest since 2008
• Phenology and Vegetation Growth in Prospect Hill Soil Warming Experiment at Harvard Forest 1992-1993
• Phenology of Woody Species at Harvard Forest since 1990
• Study type: historical
• Research topic: historical and retrospective studies; physiological ecology, population dynamics and species interactions
• LTER core area: population studies
• Keywords: climate, flowering, phenology, plant species
• Abstract:

  Climate change has resulted in major changes in the phenology of some species but not others. Long-term field observational records provide the best assessment of these changes, but geographic and taxonomic biases limit their utility. Plant specimens in herbaria have been hypothesized to provide a wealth of additional data for studying phenological responses to climatic change. However, no study to our knowledge has comprehensively addressed whether herbarium data are accurate measures of phenological response, and thus applicable to addressing such questions. We compared flowering phenology determined from field observations (years 1852-1858; 1875; 1878-1908; 2003-2006; 2011-2013) and herbarium records (1852-2013) of 20 species from New England, USA. Earliest flowering date estimated from herbarium records faithfully reflected field observations of first flowering date and substantially increased the sampling range across climatic conditions. Additionally, although most species demonstrated a response to inter-annual temperature variation, long-term temporal changes in phenological response were not detectable. Our findings support the use of herbarium records for understanding plant phenological responses to changes in temperature, and also importantly establish a new use of herbarium collections: inferring primary phenological cueing mechanisms of individual species (e.g., temperature, winter chilling, photoperiod). These latter data are lacking from most investigations of phenological change, but are vital for understanding differential responses of individual species to ongoing climate change.

• Methods:

  Flowering phenology was determined from field observations (1852-1858; 1875; 1878-1908; 2003-2006; 2011-2013) and herbarium records (1852-2013) from the town of Concord and the counties of Bristol, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Worcester (all in Massachusetts).

  Service Notes: Since the initial release of this dataset, the syntax and defaults of the polygon function in the sp library have changed. The Rmd file has been updated accordingly. The implicit requirement of ggplot2 for reshape2 is also now recognized.

• Organization: Harvard Forest. 324 North Main Street, Petersham, MA 01366, USA. Phone (978) 724-3302. Fax (978) 724-3595.

• Project: The Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program examines ecological dynamics in the New England region resulting from natural disturbances, environmental change, and human impacts. (ROR).

• Funding: National Science Foundation LTER grants: DEB-8811764, DEB-9411975, DEB-0080592, DEB-0620443, DEB-1237491, DEB-1832210.

• Use: This dataset is released to the public under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (No Rights Reserved). Please keep the dataset creators informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset should include proper acknowledgement.

• License: Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal (CC0-1.0)

• Citation: Davis C, Ellison A. 2023. Eastern Massachusetts Flowering Phenology 1852-2013. Harvard Forest Data Archive: HF258 (v.6). Environmental Data Initiative: https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/efe61ab3c8d3b3e58b3d348c3724550a.

Detailed Metadata

hf258-01: Blue Hills data

1. year: calendar year, 1831 - 2007
2. jan: mean monthly temperature for January at the Blue Hills, MA Meteorological Observatory (unit: celsius / missing value: NA)
3. feb: mean monthly temperature for February at the Blue Hills, MA Meteorological Observatory (unit: celsius / missing value: NA)
4. mar: mean monthly temperature for March at the Blue Hills, MA Meteorological Observatory (unit: celsius / missing value: NA)
5. apr: mean monthly temperature for April at the Blue Hills, MA Meteorological Observatory (unit: celsius / missing value: NA)
6. may: mean monthly temperature for May at the Blue Hills, MA Meteorological Observatory (unit: celsius / missing value: NA)
7. jun: mean monthly temperature for June at the Blue Hills, MA Meteorological Observatory (unit: celsius / missing value: NA)
8. jul: mean monthly temperature for July at the Blue Hills, MA Meteorological Observatory (unit: celsius / missing value: NA)
9. aug: mean monthly temperature for August at the Blue Hills, MA Meteorological Observatory (unit: celsius / missing value: NA)
10. sep: mean monthly temperature for September at the Blue Hills, MA Meteorological Observatory (unit: celsius / missing value: NA)
11. oct: mean monthly temperature for October at the Blue Hills, MA Meteorological Observatory (unit: celsius / missing value: NA)
12. nov: mean monthly temperature for November at the Blue Hills, MA Meteorological Observatory (unit: celsius / missing value: NA)
13. dec: mean monthly temperature for December at the Blue Hills, MA Meteorological Observatory (unit: celsius / missing value: NA)

hf258-02: GHCN data

1. year: calendar year, 1831-2007
2. jan: mean monthly temperature (1/100th of degrees Celsius) for January at Great Blue Hill, MA, from NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network (http://ncdc.noaa.gov/ghcnm/) (unit: hundrethOfDegreeCelsius / missing value: NA)
3. feb: mean monthly temperature (1/100th of degrees Celsius) for February at Great Blue Hill, MA, from NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network (unit: hundrethOfDegreeCelsius / missing value: NA)
4. mar: mean monthly temperature (1/100th of degrees Celsius) for March at Great Blue Hill, MA, from NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network (unit: hundrethOfDegreeCelsius / missing value: NA)
5. apr: mean monthly temperature (1/100th of degrees Celsius) for April at Great Blue Hill, MA, from NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network (unit: hundrethOfDegreeCelsius / missing value: NA)
6. may: mean monthly temperature (1/100th of degrees Celsius) for May at Great Blue Hill, MA, from NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network (unit: hundrethOfDegreeCelsius / missing value: NA)
7. jun: mean monthly temperature (1/100th of degrees Celsius) for June at Great Blue Hill, MA, from NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network (unit: hundrethOfDegreeCelsius / missing value: NA)
8. jul: mean monthly temperature (1/100th of degrees Celsius) for July at Great Blue Hill, MA, from NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network (unit: hundrethOfDegreeCelsius / missing value: NA)
9. aug: mean monthly temperature (1/100th of degrees Celsius) for August at Great Blue Hill, MA, from NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network (unit: hundrethOfDegreeCelsius / missing value: NA)
10. sep: mean monthly temperature (1/100th of degrees Celsius) for September at Great Blue Hill, MA, from NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network (unit: hundrethOfDegreeCelsius / missing value: NA)
11. oct: mean monthly temperature (1/100th of degrees Celsius) for October at Great Blue Hill, MA, from NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network (unit: hundrethOfDegreeCelsius / missing value: NA)
12. nov: mean monthly temperature (1/100th of degrees Celsius) for November at Great Blue Hill, MA, from NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network (unit: hundrethOfDegreeCelsius / missing value: NA)
13. dec: mean monthly temperature (1/100th of degrees Celsius) for December at Great Blue Hill, MA, from NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network (unit: hundrethOfDegreeCelsius / missing value: NA)

hf258-03: herbarium data

1. family: plant family
2. genus: plant genus
3. species: plant species
4. genus.species: plant genus and species
5. collector: individual who collected the specimen
6. collection.num: reference number in Herbarium
7. herbarium: herbarium collection where specimen is stored
8. doy: day of year (0-366) specimen was collected (unit: nominalDay / missing value: NA)
9. year: year in which specimen was collected
10. locality: county in which specimen was collected
11. state: state in which specimen was collected (always Massachusetts)
12. phenology: reproductive state of specimen
13. datum.type: herbarium or field observation (always Herbarium in this file)

hf258-04: field data

1. family: plant family
2. genus: plant genus
3. species: plant species
4. genus.species: plant genus and species
5. collector: individual who collected the specimen
6. doy: day of year (0-366) specimen was collected (unit: nominalDay / missing value: NA)
7. year: year in which specimen was collected
8. locality: county in which specimen was collected (always Middlesex in this file)
9. state: state in which specimen was collected (always Massachusetts)
10. phenology: reproductive state of specimen (always flowering in this file)
11. datum.type: herbarium or field observation (always Observation in this file)

hf258-05: eastern Massachusetts flowering phenology analysis

• Compression: none
• Format: R Markdown
• Type: script