By Kyle Carruthers
Seasonal timing is eternally present and recurring. Currently, the Northern Hemisphere looks to the seasonal timing and return of spring. For Taylor students its arrival is anticipated for the comfort the season will bring, warm sunbeams and the hope of a day without a jacket.
Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Science Jason Courter sees more in spring's arrival.
Phenology is the study of the timing of annual events and the subject of Courter's doctoral dissertation at Clemson University (link requires Taylor login). Courter studied the annual arrival of hummingbirds returning from Central America. He discovered the birds were arriving earlier by 11 to 14 days compared to half a century ago.
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Phenology is an essential component of environmental science. Phenological phenomena interact with biospheric processes at scales from local to global, from minutes to centuries (Adapted from Bonan, G.B. 2002. Ecological Climatology. Cambridge Univ. Press).[/caption]
The earlier timing could be because of earlier flowers and insects. Understanding this timing is also important to farmers as well as scientists who, according to Courter, use birds as pest control for crops or for pollination. Courter seeks to understand the connections of the ecology and food webs involved.
"What we're seeing is a lot of these phenological events are advancing, and I think that climate change is one of the contributing factors," Courter said.
Courter first started his research on hummingbird migration in 2010. He finished in 2012. His research was a fusion of government, citizen and scientist efforts. Courter and associates analyzed 5,000 cards of recorded hummingbird migration that were stored in government files.
The cards were dated between 1880 and 1960. These were compared to over 35,000 recent contributions by practitioners of "citizen science."
"The emergence of citizen science is relatively new," Courter said. "It's the idea that people with a smartphone, essentially amateur birders and observers, can report things-like the first time they see a hummingbird at their feeder." The reports include geographic location, generating huge sample sizes for researchers.
One of Courter's goals in starting his project was utilizing information that had been collected over the years and integrating it with this new information pool.
"I knew a lot of bird data had been collected and hadn't been analyzed yet," Courter said. "I think I saw a good opportunity to assess changes in bird migration to relate that to possible climate change using information, historical data and some more recent data and was curious that there was a difference."
An obstacle in his research was understanding and compensating for the bias that comes from information provided by non-scientists.
Scientists only recently acknowledged how much information is available. "If we can address those biases I think there's a wealth of information," Courter said.
In the future, Courter plans to draw upon citizen science again in examining behaviors of avian feeding strategies as well as the nesting dates of birds. He would like to see if the timing of caterpillar lifecycles or tree bud bursts correlates with the change in bird behavior.
Courter, who graduated from Taylor with a biology degree, believes his undergraduate experience added immeasurably to his work.
"(I) wanted to reiterate how thankful I am for my training as a Taylor University undergraduate that provided me with a strong foundation for understanding natural systems, collaborating with colleagues and applying principles of stewardship and creation care," Courter said.
