Greetings!

Happy summer! I truly hope this summer is bringing you recovery and restoration. Here in southern Arizona, we are starting to see signs of our summer monsoon, and the effect is gloriously refreshing for plants, animals, and humans in the region alike.

This past few months have been busy ones as we continue to work on stabilizing our program. End users continue to demonstrate big enthusiasm for the phenology data and resources we offer -- our Status of Spring map made another appearance on the Today Show with Al Roker this past April! We are also excited by the continued enthusiastic use of phenology observations contributed to Nature's Notebook -- see some examples below.

Thank you for your continued support and engagement with all of us at the USA National Phenology Network. We are grateful for every one of our wonderful partners! Have a great summer!
Warmly,
What's new at the USA National Phenology Network
Welcome, Tanner and Cristina!
Please join us in welcoming two new students to the USA-NPN National Coordinating Office team. Tanner Bland is an undergraduate at the University of Arizona with interests in restoration ecology and entomology. He will be our new Administrative Associate, replacing Reilly Rodriguez, who graduated last month. Congrats, Reilly, and best wishes on your next chapter!

Cristina Curran is a graduate student at the UA in the Epidemiology track at the College of Public Health. She will be assisting with development of mosquito activity forecasts. She carries on the work of Jessie Giles, MPH, who also just graduated. Well done, Jessie!

Tanner Bland (top) and Cristina Curran (bottom)
USA-NPN awarded "Enduring Achievement" recognition from ARIS
In May, the USA National Phenology Network was awarded the "Enduring Achievement" award from the Center for Advancing Research in Society (ARIS), an organization that advances impacts of research. We are excited a grateful for this recognition of our efforts to share phenology research findings with individuals of all ages and backgrounds.

Data and data products
New feature in buffelgrass green-up forecasts: predictions at weather stations
The USA-NPN's Buffelgrass Green-up Forecasts show where green-up is expected within 1-2 weeks to guide locations to prioritize treatment. New for 2021: We have added weather station-based forecasts of buffelgrass green-up to the gridded forecasts. This additional information is available in the Visualization Tool and offers additional information for decision-makers to consider.


Phenology-themed teaching resources
A number of phenology-themed teaching resources were recently published on the QUBES Hub. Resulting from Project EDDIE (Environmental Data-Driven Inquiry & Exploration), several of these units guide students through accessing, exploring, and analyzing phenology data maintained by the USA-NPN.



Research spotlight
Adjusting for local adaptation in phenology models
Plants frequently adapt to local environmental conditions, and this adaptation can mean that the same species demonstrates different chill or warmth requirements in different parts of its range to cue the same phenological event. Using USA-NPN phenology data, Liang and Wu (2021) demonstrate a simple and clever way to account for variations in cueing requirements across a species' range.

Image: Martin LaBar 
Opportunities
Special issue in Remote Sensing
You are invited to submit your manuscript to a Special Issue entitled "Remote Sensing of Land Surface Phenology” in the journal Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292), due 31 Dec 2021. Guest editors: Dr. Xuanlong Ma, Dr. Jiaxin Jin, Dr. Xiaolin Zhu, Dr. Yuke Zhou, Dr. Qiaoyun Xie.

Job posting: Director, SNRE, U Arizona
The University of Arizona, Arizona's flagship and land-grant university and home to the USA-NPN, seeks an energetic, innovative, and entrepreneurial Director of the School of Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE). This directorship will also be accompanied by a Tenured Professorship commensurate to the rank and qualifications of the applicant.

Upcoming meetings
Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Virtual, August 2-6, 2021.

American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, New Orleans, LA, December 13-17, 2021. Abstracts due Aug 4, 2021.

Contact
Theresa Crimmins
Director
520-621-8523