Overview

TEMPO grew out of the scientific community’s concerns regarding the impacts of climate change on living organisms and ecosystems. As phenological events are controlled by weather conditions (mainly temperature), climate change is currently disrupting the seasonal rhythms of the entire living world.

Phenology is one of the EBVs (Essential Biodiversity Variables) that requires special monitoring across the entire planet and the living world, together with the genetic diversity, populations’ abundance and species distribution.

Nevertheless, at the national level, until now, observation efforts have been scattered, observation protocols heterogeneous even for the same species and thousands of data remained neither banked nor disseminated. 

After an initial structuring effort led by the GDR CNRS 2968 and the INRAE ACCAF PERPHECLIM project for the forest and perennial crop sector, TEMPO was founded from a collective effort of different  bodies (research institutes, NGOs, local authority and private companies). The aim was to create a research infrastructure produce and distribute phenological data to the greatest number, be a common and a community of practice dedicated to phenology.