Plant and Animal Phenophase Definitions

The USA National Phenology Network’s (USA-NPN) standardized phenology monitoring protocols were designed to capture the seasonal life cycle stages of plants and animals across polar, temperate, tropical, and water-limited ecosystems. The protocols can be tailored to any sampling density or frequency and can be used either within the Nature’s Notebook observation program, or independently. The resulting data can be used to answer a variety of scientific and management questions from local to continental scales. 
The protocols are specific to major taxonomic groups and consist of a suite of “phenophases”. A phenophase is an observable stage or phase in the annual life cycle of a plant or animal that can be defined by a start and end point. For plants, phenophases identify the presence or absence of structures (e.g., leaves, flowers, fruits) on an individual plant that is observed repeatedly over the course of one or more growing seasons. For animals, phenophases identify the presence or absence of behaviors such as breeding, migration, and use of food resources. 
Intensity or abundance measures for each phenophase indicate the degree to which the phenophase is expressed. They represent either an estimate of the number of plant structures or individual animals that are present or engaged in a behavior, or an estimate of the percentage of plant structures observed in a particular state (e.g., percent of flowers that are open). 
In this Plant and Animal Phenophase Definitions document, the phenophases in use for major plant and animal taxonomic groups are summarized in tables, and the full phenophase definitions and associated intensity or abundance measures are included in subsequent sections. The multiple files represent updates over time to reduce confusion in the phenophase definitions, include new taxonomic groups, and expand protocols to more fully capture certain life cycle stages. Be sure to use the most current version of the file. Also note the version number for this record does not necessarily correspond to the version number of the most recent Definitions file.

For inquiries regarding the contents of this dataset, please contact the Corresponding Author listed in the README.txt file. Administrative inquiries (e.g., removal requests, trouble downloading, etc.) can be directed to [e-mail]

美国国家物候网络（USA-NPN）制定的标准物候监测协议旨在捕捉极地、温带、热带和水限生态系统内植物和动物的季节性生命周期阶段。这些协议可根据任何采样密度或频率进行调整，并可用于自然笔记观察项目内或独立使用。所得数据可用于回答从地方到大陆尺度的一系列科学和管理问题。协议针对主要分类群，由一系列“物候阶段”组成。物候阶段是指植物或动物年度生命周期中可观察到的某个阶段或阶段，该阶段可以通过起始点和结束点来定义。对于植物而言，物候阶段识别的是在单个植物上重复观察到的结构（例如，叶片、花朵、果实）的存在或不存在，对于动物而言，物候阶段识别的是如繁殖、迁徙和食物资源利用等行为的存在或不存在。每个物候阶段的强度或丰度度量表示该物候阶段表达的程度，它们代表的是植物结构或参与行为的个体动物数量的估计，或者是在特定状态下观察到的植物结构百分比的估计（例如，开放花朵的百分比）。在本《植物和动物物候阶段定义》文件中，总结了用于主要植物和动物分类群的物候阶段，并在随后的章节中包含了完整的物候阶段定义和相关强度或丰度量度。多个文件代表了随着时间的推移对物候阶段定义的更新，包括新的分类群，并扩展协议以更全面地捕捉某些生命周期阶段。请确保使用最新版本的文件。请注意，本记录的版本号不一定对应于最新定义文件的版本号。有关此数据集内容的查询，请联系README.txt文件中列出的对应作者。行政查询（例如，删除请求、下载问题等）可发送至[e-mail]。