Bucket O' Bookmarks: BudBurst
Citizen scientists sought
Cinquefoil wildflowers in Colorado. (Photo by Carlye Calvin, ©UCAR.)
Gardeners, for years you've been relying on data from meteorologists to plan your activities; now you have a chance to repay the favor by helping climate research. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) has announced that, starting today, Project BudBurst is soliciting data on the timing of leafing and flowering of native tree and flower species throughout the U.S.
The project has been opened to nationwide volunteer participation following a pilot study last year which produced reports from 26 states on nearly a thousand phenological events (such as the first bud burst, first leafing, first flower, and seed or fruit dispersal) of a variety of tree and flower species. The species list has been expanded to include 30 native trees/shrubs, 24 native wildflowers, three common exotic weeds, and two common exotic ornamentals.
Attention teachers: Teaching materials for various levels in the K-12 range are available at the project's web site.
UCAR, the country's largest non-governmental meteorological research organization, is jointly administered by 70 universities with doctoral programs in the atmospheric sciences. It manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO.
By Steve Scolnik |
February 15, 2008; 6:00 PM ET
Climate Change
, Education
, Links
, Science
Previous: CommuteCast: Mild with Clouds Returning |
Next: Forecast: Circular Holiday Weekend Weather
Posted by: mcleaNed | February 16, 2008 12:09 AM
Crocuses do look better poking through snow, don't they?
Posted by: ~sg | February 16, 2008 12:54 AM
Post a Comment
We encourage users to analyze, comment on and even challenge washingtonpost.com's articles, blogs, reviews and multimedia features.
User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions.
A burst of buds? That reminds me of what this winter has been--a burst of busts. The flowers are welcome to come out after we get an actual snowstorm.