A new method and insights for estimating phenological events from herbarium specimens.

ABSTRACT:

Premise of the study

A novel method of estimating phenology of herbarium specimens was developed to facilitate more precise determination of plant phenological responses to explanatory variables (e.g., climate).

Methods and results

Simulated specimen data sets were used to compare the precision of phenological models using the new method and two common, alternative methods (flower presence/absence and ≥50% flowers present). The new "estimated phenophase" method was more precise and extracted a greater number of significant species-level relationships; however, this method only slightly outperformed the simple "binary" (e.g., flowers present/absent) method.

Conclusions

The new method enables estimation of phenological trends with greater precision. However, when time a

SUBMITTER: Pearson KD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6426155 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature