Date:
Juliet Oshiro is a PhD candidate at UC Santa Cruz in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. She studies how plant blooming times respond to climate in the grassland and sandhills vegetation types in Santa Cruz County.
This type of work is called phenology—the study of life cycle events. It’s also referred to as the study of nature’s calendar. Life cycle events are often cued by environmental conditions such as temperature and precipitation, so naturally phenology has been a hot topic for research in an era of global change. Many species of plants and animals have advanced their calendar over the past century in response to increased temperatures.
In order to find meaningful patterns such as these, phenology research requires large datasets that span multiple years and locations. In recent years phenology researchers have developed a number of ways to involve citizen scientists — YOU! — in the data collection process.
Juliet’s talk will cover how to become part of this effort, both independently and through the upcoming UC Santa Cruz Arboretum’s Phenology Walk program. Learn about it in this article by Juliet about phenology.
Note that all are welcome to come early on meeting day and join in the Keying Club activity. It begins at 5 pm and provides an enjoyable way to learn more about botany, and identifying (keying-out) plants using the Jepson manual.
Juliet's talk is sponsored by the California Native Plant Society, Santa Cruz County Chapter.
UCSC Arboretum Meeting Hall, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz across from Western Drive. 7:30pm.
