What is Phenology

Phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate. Examples include bird nesting, insect hatching, plant flowering and fruit ripening. Many studies have already provided insight into the relationship between climate variables, such as temperature and rainfall, to the timing of these phenophases.

Climate change is affecting rainfall and temperature across Australia, and is consequently triggering changes in established flowering times, breeding cycles and migration movements and other phenological changes of our flora and fauna.

Monitoring phenology is important as changes can impact entire biological communities, our food sources and our health. Unfortunately. few significant datasets have been collected and researched in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere. That's where ClimateWatch comes in and enables everyone to contribute to critical climate change research.