NERC-FAPESP PhenoChange: Towards a Dry Tropics Global Phenological Monitoring Network

NERC-FAPESP PhenoChange：迈向干燥热带全球物候监测网络

• 批准号: NE/X002993/1
• 负责人: Kyle Dexter
• 金额: $ 10.65万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FX002993%2F1
• 关键词: NERC; FAPESP; PhenoChange; Towards; Dry

Phenology is a term used to describe the seasonal timing of animal and plant behaviour. Examples of phenological events are when plants first flower in the spring or when birds migrate to the tropics for the winter. In the dry regions of the tropics, phenological behaviour of plants seems to be primarily linked to water availability, rather than to changes in temperature as for example in temperate areas like the UK, but determinants of tropical phenology are poorly understood. Yet, elucidating the phenological behaviour of plants, including in the dry tropics, is essential to measure the flow of carbon into and out of ecosystems. This contributes in turn to understanding the links between plants and the atmosphere and ultimately to predicting the potential impact of climate change on vegetation and vegetation impacts on the climate.Recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the United Nations Environment Programme have made it clear that more data are needed on the phenological patterns of vegetation in the tropics, in order to improve predictions on the future of the climate, both in the tropics and globally. To do that, we need to study the phenology of tropical vegetation over broad geographic areas. Hypothetically this can be accomplished using satellite observations, but in fact, the data available from satellites are inadequate: clouds often block a space-based view of the vegetation and the spatial resolution of the images is too coarse (imagine a very fuzzy photograph). The latter means that it can be very difficult to distinguish between trees leafing out versus grasses, with important implications for the amount of carbon flowing into or out of an ecosystem. This is particularly relevant in dry tropical regions where mixed ecosystems with trees and grass are widespread. We also have a poor idea of how phenological timing varies over geographic regions with different patterns of rainfall.Ground-based observations of phenology are therefore needed to complement satellite observations and provide a more accurate picture of vegetation behaviour. Historically, ground-based observations have been difficult to implement at a broad geographic scale in a consistent way, because they are labour intensive and difficult to do in a consistent manner. However, new technologies point a way forward to overcome these issues and advance multi-site and multi-layer (tree and grass) observations across tropical regions. Specifically, cameras can be installed that take photographs every day of the same patch of vegetation over the course of months and years. Such images can be efficiently processed using new computational techniques to quantify when a given patch of vegetation, or ecosystem, flushes new leaves, and whether those leaves are on trees or the ground layer.The proposed project, PhenoChange, will link up global experts on camera-based phenological monitoring in Brazil and the USA with a team of British and African scientists that are leading pioneering, ground-based studies of tropical dry vegetation across sub-Saharan Africa. The project team will install and monitor cameras at six representative sites across dry tropical areas in Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa. This will result in the first comparable, ground-based dataset of vegetation phenology in the dry tropics across multiple continents. The research team will analyse these data to address some key unanswered questions around the timing of tree versus grass phenology in tropical dry vegetation and how this varies over gradients of rainfall. The results will have important implications for models that predict future climate change and its interaction with vegetation change. Finally, the results will lay the groundwork for future grant applications that will deepen and expand UK expertise on vegetation in tropical dry ecosystems.

物候学是一种用于描述动物和植物行为的季节性时机的术语。物候事件的例子是植物在春季首次开花或鸟类在冬季迁移到热带地区。在热带地区的干燥区域，植物的物候行为似乎主要与水的可用性有关，而不是与温度的变化有关，例如在英国等温带地区，但是对热带物候学的决定因素知之甚少。然而，阐明植物的物候行为，包括在干燥的热带地区，对于测量碳流入和流出生态系统至关重要。这反过来又有助于理解植物与气氛之间的联系，并最终预测气候变化对植被和植被对气候的影响的潜在影响。政府间气候变化和联合国环境计划的报道清楚地表明，为了改善宾夕法尼亚州的热情植被的现象，需要更多的数据，以改善cllopics的植被和未来的预测。为此，我们需要研究广泛地理区域的热带植被的物候学。假设可以使用卫星观测来实现这一点，但是实际上，卫星可用的数据不足：云通常会阻止基于空间的植被的视图，而图像的空间分辨率太粗糙了（想象一下非常模糊的照片）。后者意味着，很难区分树木与草相对于草，对流入或流出生态系统的碳量的重要意义。这在干燥的热带地区尤其重要，在干燥的热带地区，与树木和草的混合生态系统相结合。我们也对地理区域的物候时机如何在具有不同的降雨模式的地理区域变化。因此，基于落下的地理观察是需要对卫星观察的，并提供了更准确的植被行为的情况。从历史上看，基于地面的观察很难以一致的方式以广泛的地理规模实施，因为它们是劳动密集型且难以以一致的方式进行的。但是，新技术指向克服这些问题并推进热带地区的多层和多层（树木和草）观察的前进道路。具体而言，可以安装相机，这些相机每天在几个月和几年中拍摄相同植被的照片。 Such images can be efficiently processed using new computational techniques to quantify when a given patch of vegetation, or ecosystem, flushes new leaves, and whether those leaves are on trees or the ground layer.The proposed project, PhenoChange, will link up global experts on camera-based phenological monitoring in Brazil and the USA with a team of British and African scientists that are leading pioneering, ground-based studies of tropical dry vegetation across sub-Saharan Africa.项目团队将在巴西和撒哈拉以南非洲的干燥热带地区的六个代表地点安装和监视摄像机。这将导致在多大洲的干燥热带地区第一个可比的，地面植被物候数据集。研究小组将分析这些数据，以解决热带干燥植被中树与草候时机的一些关键未解决问题，以及在降雨的梯度上如何变化。结果将对预测未来气候变化及其与植被变化相互作用的模型具有重要意义。最后，结果将为未来的赠款应用奠定基础，该应用将加深和扩大热带干燥生态系统植被的专业知识。