Abstract Detail

Tools, Standards, Techniques, and Methods for Using Herbarium Specimens in Phenological Research

Pearson, Katelin [1].

Estimating peak flowering from specimen data calibrated by phenological observations.

Many studies of plant phenology using herbarium specimens have assessed phenophase on a simplistic binary scale (e.g., flowers present or absent); however, because phenological events may occur over protracted periods of time, estimates of phenophase timing resulting from these methods may be imprecise and unreliable. More conservative methods such as only including specimens with 50% of reproductive structures in a certain phenophase may be more precise but limit the size of the resulting dataset, which may result in insufficient statistical power to distinguish phenological trends. To overcome these limitations in my own study of the phenological sensitivity of asteraceous species to climate, I developed a novel method to estimate the peak flowering date of each of 10,000+ specimens by combining phenological assessment of specimen images and flowering duration data collected in the field. Here I describe this method, compare model performance when using my method versus other methods of phenophase determination, and assess the strengths and limitations of this new approach.

1 - Florida State University, Department Of Biological Sciences, 319 Stadium Drive, Tallahassee, FL, 32306, United States

Keywords:
phenology
herbarium specimens
digitization
collections.

Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Session: SY3, Tools, Standards, Techniques, and Methods for Using Herbarium Specimens in Phenological Research
Location: 103/Mayo Civic Center
Date: Tuesday, July 24th, 2018
Time: 10:45 AM
Number: SY3007
Abstract ID:242
Candidate for Awards:None