Forest Observatory

The Forest Observatory consists of more than 80 members representing more than 30 research or experimental teams.

The objectives of the Forest Observatory come entirely under the general objectives of TEMPO, namely:

• To collect, save and disseminate the phenological observations carried out by the partners.

The Forest Observatory has implemented standards and formalized tools to make phenology data available to the scientific community: from simple spreadsheets to more advanced SQL database type systems. This action allows each member to come into compliance with the European directive INSPIRES which invites the organisations collecting data related to a coordinate location "to make the data available in accordance with harmonized technical specifications".

• To harmonize and standardize observation protocols between different observatories in order to ensure the data quality.

The Forest Observatory organizes inter-calibration sessions involving professional observers but also members of citizen science programs. These annual trainings allow field phenologists to discuss around protocols and observation difficulties, to centralize the protocols used within the network and create a common language.

• To understand and model genetic and environmental phenology determinisms.

to date, the Forest Observatory has been particularly involved in studies on the determining factors of budbreak and endodormancy break as well as leaf senescence. Recently, it has also involved in studies on the fruit flowering and ripening determining factors.

• To organize and stimulate the scientific community around cross-disciplinary scientific and technical issues.

From a technical point of view, the method for observing phenological events with the naked eye has its limits due to its time-consuming, subjective, and discrete nature. Thus, the Forest Observatory, in collaboration with the "Innovative Observation Systems" work group, will implement actions aimed at developing the following methods:

1. observation of leaf senescence (direct obs. / remote sensing / imaging / PAR radiation sensor for LAI / slit spectrometer / standardized colour range / colour sensors / photosynthesis rate)
2. for a quantification of the level of fruit ripening
3. regular monitoring of the large scale change of trees without permanent human presence (instrumentation as part of high output phenotyping)

Manager :

• Nicolas DELPIERRE, Responsable, Ecophysiologie Végétale - Université Paris Sud, Orsay, nicolas.delpierre@u-psud.fr

• Frédéric JEAN, Network technical manager, Unité Ecologie des Forêts Méditerranéennes, INRAE, Avignon, frederic.jean@inrae.fr