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Long Term Phenology: Green Up & Green Down 2001-2016

Organization(s):Palmer High School
Country:United States of America
Student(s):Blainey Dunyon Sapphira Flint Katie Ziegler
Grade Level:Secondary School (grades 9-12, ages 14-18)
GLOBE Teacher:Cheryl Williams
Contributors:
Report Type(s):International Virtual Science Symposium Report
Protocols:Green-Up / Green-Down
Presentation Poster: View Document
Optional Badges:I am a Collaborator, I make an Impact, I am a Data Scientist
Language(s):
Date Submitted:02/20/2018
Alaskan Phenologists
It’s a common belief that climate change has a direct correlation to the length of growing season. Our objective was to find out if there was any significant changes in the growing seasons over the years, using green up and green down data. Our group used GLOBE data from both Palmer and Wasilla High School. The schools are located ten miles apart. The data was collected by students between the years 2000 and 2017 and over the years there was no apparent increase or decrease for the date of green up. Our data found that there was a decrease in the date of green down meaning that green down was occurring earlier in the year. Climate is a complicated system with many fluctuations. Even seventeen years of data is not enough to see overall changes in climate. Our group recommends that green up and green down data continue to be collected and climate changes can be reevaluated in twenty years.


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Comments

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Dorian Wood Janney
6 Years Ago
I enjoyed reading your research report and am impressed with your work and the way in which you fully explain how changes in climate and phenology can be investigated. As you found in your conclusions, often there are multiple cause and effect relationships taking place when looking at climate change.

Here is a resource which might be interesting to your team to review that looks at the potential impacts of climate change in Alaska: https://www.globalchange.gov/explore/alaska

What might change in your school's region as a result of the projected climate changes for Alaska? How would that impact the green up and green down observations that students might take in your school in say ten years?
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Dixon Matlock Butler
6 Years Ago - Edited
I think your project is terrific. The idea is straight forward, and you clearly went through the steps of the scientific method. Although judging in the IVSS is completely independent of grammar concerns, I think you should know that in English "data" is a plural noun. In the future, it would be wonderful if students from your school could either collect data from Wasilla or recruit collaborators to resume collecting data at their site. Question: Is the length of the growing season sensitive to your using leaf fall instead of the onset of color change as the defined end of the growing season? In future there are many student research opportunities to build on your work.