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 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. 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 National Phenology Network，USA-NPN）的标准化物候监测规程，旨在监测并记录极地、温带、热带与水分受限生态系统中动植物的季节性生命周期阶段。该规程可适配任意采样密度与频率，既可集成于Nature’s Notebook观测项目，也可独立使用。所获监测数据可用于解答从局地到洲际尺度的各类科学与管理问题。本规程针对主要分类群定制，包含一系列物候阶段（phenophase）。物候阶段指可通过起止点界定的动植物年度生命周期内的可观测阶段或状态。针对植物，物候阶段用于标识单株植物在一个或多个生长季内重复观测时，其叶片、花朵、果实等结构的存在与否；针对动物，物候阶段则用于标识繁殖、迁徙、利用食物资源等行为的存在与否。各物候阶段的强度或丰度指标，可反映该物候阶段的表达程度：其数值要么为现存植物结构或参与特定行为的个体动物数量的估算值，要么为特定状态下植物结构占比的估算值（如盛开花朵的百分比）。本文件以表格形式汇总了适用于主要动植物分类群的物候阶段，完整的物候阶段定义及配套的强度/丰度指标将在后续章节中详细列出。若对本数据集内容存有疑问，请联系README.txt文件中列明的通讯作者。行政类咨询（如移除申请、下载故障等）可发送至[e-mail]