June 2022 - Cone Counters is back! See below for how to participate!!
In July 2021, Cone Counters, a new Community Science project, was initiated on iNaturalist to assess conifer reproduction. www.inaturalist.org/projects/cone-counters-assess-new-reproduction-in-conifer-trees Why count cones? This project aims to understand patterns of tree reproduction at regional to continental to global scales, and focuses specifically on conifers and their cone production. Conifer cone production follows a pattern called “mast seeding” which means there is highly variable reproduction across years (most years there are none to few cones produced by trees, and some years there are *LOTS and LOTS* of cones produced) in a population of perennial plants. These mast-seeding patterns are often highly synchronized locally, which means trees may behave similarly to each other. The goal of this project is to quantify new reproduction in conifers in as many geographic areas as possible to understand what drives conifer reproduction. To accomplish this goal, having people contribute data from a wide variety of locations is necessary. What do conifer trees look like? Conifers are trees that have needles or scale-like leaves, and produce cones that contain seeds. Conifers include pine, spruce, fir, hemlock, cedar, tamarack, etc. What do new conifer cones look like? New conifer cones are green or purple, these are the ones to count! If you see brown, woody cones, these are old cones from previous years (don’t count these). Note: data on trees with zero or a few new cones is as valuable as trees with many new cones. For more information: conecounters_-_community_science_project_information.pdf Want to participate and need a measuring tape to measure tree size (trunk circumference)? Sign up to receive one: forms.gle/FGwVbvi4jrceoUsg7 Don't want to join iNaturalist, but want to make observations & contribute data? There are options! You can either: i) Fill out the information on this ConeCounters Data Upload form (no sign-in required), OR ii) Send the information below in an email to: [email protected]
(Data submitted via the form or email will be transferred to iNaturalist) |
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