Irish Phenology Network

Photo courtesy of Tim Lenz (northern wheatear, non-breeding plummage), wikipedia

The aim of the Irish Phenology Network is to provide the general public with an opportunity to participate in phenological observations in Ireland. Your observations are invaluable for climate change research by the scientific community.

• We are asking you to record the growing season of trees and other plants, birds and insects.  This information can help show if events are happening earlier or later each year with changes in temperature and rainfall in Ireland.

• We can also compare these observations with those taken in other countries.  This way we can see if the same changes that are occurring here are also occurring in the UK, or in mainland Europe.  The more records we have, the more reliable these studies will be.

• We can also use records that have already been taken and deposited with the National Biodiversity Data Centre to see what changes have occurred in Ireland over time.  The methods of observation are fun and easy to follow.

There are several public sites already involved in monitoring the phenology of trees in Ireland.  Here is a map of the gardens involved in the IPG network and Native Tree Phenology network in Ireland.  These sites encourage visitors to come to their phenological gardens and see the species to monitor and what their phenophases look like.

Image and table courtesy of Hazel Proctor