9 June 2010  •  Now in its fourth year, a citizen science campaign that charts the timing of flowers and foliage has amassed enough data to provide intriguing hints of climate change.

Project BudBurst, operated by UCAR and Chicago Botanic Garden through multiagency support, has gathered more than 10,000 observations from students, gardeners, retirees, and other volunteers. The project involves scientists from the USA National Phenology Network and the National Ecological Observatory Network.

In the Chicago area, BudBurst data reveal that seven out of 15 kinds of plants tracked since 2007 are flowering earlier now than at any time in more than 50 years of observations by botanists. Forsythia blooms, for example, were observed by BudBurst volunteers as early as 1 April, more than three weeks ahead of any reports from the mid-1950s to 1994. The area’s earliest lilac blossom on record opened this year on 14 April at Chicago Botanic Garden.

It’ll take time to assess the new data, notes project director Sandra Henderson (UCAR Office of Education and Outreach). “We will need volunteers to make observations for a number of years before we can fill in an accurate picture about the impact of climate change on our landscape,” she says.

BudBurst features a list of “Ten Most Wanted” species, including flowers and trees such as the common lilac, red maple, and Virginia bluebell. These widely distributed plants can provide important early signs of the impact of warming temperatures on the environment. The project’s website welcomes reports on other plants as well, and the data are available online for anyone to view and map.

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