We live on a tilted planet. The result – seasons.
Phenology is the study of how seasons and climate affect the details of the natural world. When plants leaf out, the emergence of insects, bird migrations, seed set, the nesting of birds, dropping of leaves, first freezes, early thaws and much more are all tied to seasons and climate.
But the daily shift of our planet around the sun isn’t the only pattern at play. Add in the complexity of changes in the chemistry of our atmosphere, or changes in how heat is held in soil, or any number of other changes that happen on our planet daily and things get complicated.
At Bernheim we have our eye on some of the details. Single observations don’t tell us much. But consistently recording many observations over time gives us insight into how our ecology is changing over time.