COST 725: Towards a European phenological data platform

In Europe, the most vital and broadest tradition of phenological monitoring is found and enormous phenological observations especially in plants exist. But up to now the data are widespread at many different organisations with different data policies, e.g. at national meteorological services, at the IPG.and others. Observation-rules are only comparable to some extent, and differing length of time-series make the work with the data on a European wide level quite difficult. The COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) Action 725 “Establishing a European Phenological Data Platform for Climatological Applications” aims to scope these problems. The basic objective is to build a reference data set of selected plant species and phases which have been observed in European countries over a common reference period, using the BBCH code. This common data base should be filled each year with observations of the member countries supplying an up to date information to various users. The second goal is to assess and harmonise the different observations rules and propose a common reference manual for phenological observations including rules for quality checks. Further on a working group will develop applications methods for analysis of phenological data, especially for this above mentioned reference data set, including mapping, phenological calendars, trend analyses, and relationships between climate data, satellite images and phenological observations.