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Annual Report of the Vegetation Dynamics,
Climate, and Biodiversity Commission

International Society of Biometeorology

Submitted by Mark D. Schwartz, Chair December 22, 2000

  1. General Activities
    1. On 14.01. 2000, co-chair Chmielewski took part in the "Workshop on Biodiversity Monitoring" at the European Environment Agency (EEA) in Copenhagen (Invitation: Ulla Pinborg). At this workshop the discussion included how plant phenology can help to detect changes in vegetation communities and the links between phenology and biodiversity. As a result, closer collaboration between the different European Monitoring Networks was agreed.
    2. The project "European Phenology Network (EPN)" was successfully submitted to the Fifth Framework Programme of the EU, and will receive funding starting in 2001.
    3. Co-Chair Chen established the first Chinese GPM station at Beijing Botanic Garden. The USA and Germany provided the lilac and snow drops plants.
    4. The international cooperation supported by the NSF of the USA and China: "Comparison of the green-wave development between the USA and China" entered its second year. Several initial results have been published or obtained. The affiliated student exchange program has been started.
    5. The BMBF-research project (01.12.1998 - 30.11.2000) "Climate variability and phenology in Europe" was successfully finished (PI: Chmielewski)
    6. The Chinese NSF project "Response of plant phenology and growing season to potential climate change in Northern China" ended in December2000 (PI: Chen).
  2. Report on the International Conference, Progress in Phenology: Monitoring, Data Analysis, and Global Change Impacts, October 4-6, 2000 Freising, Germany

    The conference was organized by ISB Vegetation Dynamics, Climate, and Biodiversity Commission members Annette Menzel (Chair), Elisabeth Beaubien, Elisabeth Koch, Mark D. Schwartz, Tim Sparks, and Arnold van Vliet. The meetings were held in buildings which were formerly a part of the cardinal's residence (around the cathedral) in Freising. This conference was developed in conjunction with the first workshop of the 5th Framework Programme EU-project POSITIVE. Sponsors included the International Society of Biometeorology, Dutch National Research Programme on Global Air Pollution and Climate Change, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Deutsche Meteorologische Gesellschaft, and Technische Universität München. Seventy participants from twenty-two countries took part in the conference, which was an excellent turnout given the specialized subject. Most participants were from Europe (60), however, eight traveled from North America, and two from South America.

    For more details, the conference web page (http://www.fsd.nl/phen2000/index.html) now has the abstract/schedule booklet that was given to all participants available to freely download in .pdf format. Papers/posters were presented/displayed around the main themes of: 1) Phenological Monitoring and Networks; 2) Animal Phenology and Global Change; 3) Plant Phenology and Global Change; 4) Phenology and Remote Sensing; 5) Phenological Modeling; 6) Applications of Phenology in Agriculture and Forestry; 7) Applications of Phenology in Ecology. During the conference discussion centered around how to expand the support that phenological studies are presently receiving in the EU to other regions and globally. Key components of this expansion strategy will be the successful linkage of phenological research to important issues/applications such as human health (pollen/allergy forecasting) and global change. Consideration was given to the idea of promoting the next ten years as a "phenological decade" and how that might be accomplished. Selected high-quality papers from the conference are being reviewed, and will appear in a future issue of the IJB.

    On behalf of the program committee, I would like to thank the ISB for their support (both financial and through the attendance and short speech given by Peter Hoeppe at the closing session) of this conference! Lastly, the tireless work of Annette Menzel and Teja Preuhsler, strong support of Ecology Department Chair Peter Fabian, and comprehensive assistance of all the staff of the Technische Universität München are to be commended for making the conference an outstanding success.

  3. Planned Activities for 2001
    1. On the first of January the EU-project "European Phenology Network" (EPN) will start. It will be coordinated by the Environmental Systems Analysis Group of the Wageningen University in the Netherlands. EPN will run for three years and aims to increase the efficiency and added value of phenological monitoring and research in Europe in the context of global climate change. The commission will be actively involved in this project. The following activities will take place in connection with the project: 1. Coordination of the integration, co-operation, and further expansion of phenological networks in Europe; 2. Establishing an on-line phenological meta-database and a phenological bibliographical database; 3. Organization of two European conferences on phenology involving data providers, scientists, (international) organizations, commercial enterprises, policy makers and educational organizations; 4. Organization of specialist workshops on essential topics (modeling, use of earth observation data, human health, agriculture, bird migration, and communication dissemination and capacity building). EPN will thus provide many opportunities to increase communication and cooperation between phenologists, to improve access and integration of existing data, to increase the efficiency and use of existing knowledge on tools and techniques already available, and to increase the insight in the potential applications of phenological data.
    2. The first GPM-stations (as a joint project of our commission) will start taking phenological observations. Additional stations will be established in (for example in Milwaukee/Wisconsin, USA and in Slovak Republic).
    3. A new research project "Impact of the seasonal abrupt change and inter-annual fluctuation of monsoon climate on the vegetation dynamics in Eastern China" will be start in Jan. 2001 (PI: Chen)
    4. A new course "Ecological Phenology" will be given in the Spring semester for graduate students of the Department of Geography at Peking University (Instructor: Chen).
    5. A new two year research project, "Connecting Spring Phenology with Lower Atmospheric Energy-Mass Exchange, Phase Two" (PI: Schwartz) was funded by the USA NSF, and will run from 01.02.2001 to 31.01.2003.