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Tracking seasonal rhythms of plants in diverse ecosystems with digital camera imagery
Author(s) -
Richardson Andrew D.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/nph.15591
Subject(s) - phenology , ecosystem , seasonality , remote sensing , vegetation (pathology) , environmental science , tracking (education) , ecology , geography , physical geography , biology , medicine , psychology , pedagogy , pathology
Summary Global change is shifting the seasonality of vegetation in ecosystems around the globe. High‐frequency digital camera imagery, and vegetation indices derived from that imagery, is facilitating better tracking of phenological responses to environmental variation. This method, commonly referred to as the ‘phenocam’ approach, is well suited to several specific applications, including: close‐up observation of individual organisms; long‐term canopy‐level monitoring at individual sites; automated phenological monitoring in regional‐to‐continental scale observatory networks; and tracking responses to experimental treatments. Several camera networks are already well established, and some camera records are a more than a decade long. These data can be used to identify the environmental controls on phenology in different ecosystems, which will contribute to the development of improved prognostic phenology models.