‘PhenObs‘ project collaborators have been collecting phenological records of hundreds of herbaceous species in botanical gardens since 2019. The project, which launched in 2017, first included the botanical gardens of Halle, Leipzig, Jena, and Berlin, but new gardens have joined continuously since then. However, most of the participating gardens are located in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, particularly in Europe. During the current funding phase, PhenObs wants to link its phenological research with research in tropical regions and the southern hemisphere. In particular, PhenObs researchers want to collaborate with botanical gardens in these regions and facilitate the establishment of regular phenological monitoring following the PhenObs protocol. In this context, it is especially important to evaluate the necessary modifications to the monitoring protocol so it can be applied reliably in tropical regions.
This project is expected to increase scientific knowledge transfer and to close knowledge gaps in the future. For example, PhenObs researchers hope to answer the question of whether associations between phenology and functional traits observed in Europe are consistent in other parts of the world.
We also wants to link PhenObs with phenological research in herbaria, preserved plant specimens, in the next six years. Herbaria offer unique possibilities to study phenological patterns over centuries. In this context, it is interesting to investigate whether spatial patterns in phenology studied in PhenObs are consistent with temporal patterns extracted from herbaria. An important partner in this research field will be the newly founded Senckenberg Institute for Plant Form and Function (SIP) in Jena, centred around the Herbarium Haussknecht.
We invite all interested members of the iDiv to help support PhenObs 2.0’s new focus with their expertise and networks. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us (phenobs@uni-jena.de).
For more information, please visit the PhenObs webpage.