Did you know, you can become a citizen scientist and help scientists while you are out photographing the season’s colors?
If you’re paying attention to the seasonal changes around you, like photographing the fall color progression, you’re in the perfect position to help scientists understand Fall changes in your area!
Read on to see how you can contribute data while you are out photographing the season’s colors.
What is Citizen Science?
Citizen science refers to partnerships between scientists and everyday citizens. These citizens volunteer their time to help collect scientific data for various research projects.
Benefits of Citizen Science
These partnerships are very important because they allow scientists to gather much more data than they could on their own. This abundance of data helps them more fully understand the issue they are researching, and by knowing more, they can design better solutions to those issues.
Citizen scientist volunteers themselves also benefit from these partnerships. By volunteering, you get to contribute to important research, increase your scientific understanding, and learn about environmental issues. Collecting data also gives you a meaningful activity and a reason to get outside, and it can help you hone your senses to pick up on details in nature, which is a great skill to develop for photographing.
How You Can Help
Two organizations are looking for observations about Fall, such as when leaves begin to change color, and when they drop off the trees.
Studying the timing of these seasonal biological changes in plants is known as phenology. The Budburst.org’s article “About Phenology” explains that “phenology is important because it affects whether plants and animals thrive or survive in their environments. It is important because our food supply depends on the timing of phenological events. And, to scientists, changes in the timing of phenological events can be used an as indicator of changing climates.”
Fall into Phenology
You can be a citizen scientist for Budburst’s Fall into Phenolgy program. You can track leaf color and drop, but you can also monitor flower blooming as well as fruiting that happens in the Fall. Observations are quick and are only supposed to take 10 minutes to do and report. You simply notice changes in nature, record your observations, and share them on the Budburst website.
To help with this project you’ll need to:
- Create an account
- Pick a plant to monitor
- Do a life cycle or one-time observation
- Report your data
A full Fall into Phenology project description is available here including instructions for observing and reporting your findings.
Green Wave
You can also be a citizen scientist for Nature Notebook’s Green Wave. This project focuses on observing oak, maple, and poplar trees. Scientists are tracking the “spread of seasonal color across the country” and they are specifically interested in knowing when one or more leaves have turned to their late season colors, or have fallen from the tree. You simply pick a tree from their species list, make observations about it, then report that information on Nature’s Notebook.
To help with this project you’ll need to:
- Create a Nature’s Notebook account
- Select a tree to monitor
- Make and record observations
- Report your data
A full project description and instructions are available here.
Enjoy the Season
Now that you’re equipped to photograph the fall changes, and report the things you observe on your photo outings, get outside and enjoy the season!
