Early Spring? Yes and Maybe...

Skunk Cabbage by Sally Farrow, Drumlin Farm, Lincoln, MA

The awareness of early spring struck me almost literally in mid February as was skiing in Quebec through a thunder and lightning storm in pouring rain.   This was certainly not what I expected to find after months of preparing for skiing hut to hut through the "normal" below freezing  conditions northwest of Montreal in winter.  Rain in Quebec was not out of the question, as I had encountered rain in Quebec city in February years ago, but thunder and lightning, really???

Upon my return to New England on February 25th, I was greeted with 60 degree temps, and my Facebook feed and email inbox were reflecting a bunch of unusually early signs of spring.

Earliest snowdrops ever. Sighted in the hilly wilds of West Hawley, MA on 2/25/17!

Edite Cunha

Left:   Nature Log. Petersham, MA.  Thursday redwing blackbirds arrived. Satureday ice went out on the ponds. Fifteen min. later Canada Goose finds open water.  2-26-16
Tom also reported seeing 2 Eagles nesting by Quabbin Reservoir that week. 

Right:  Wood frog near the Swift River in Petersham on March 1!  Skunks also out tonight....
John Burk.

March 2, amherst ma

Audrey Barker Plotkin 

Aside from these casual observations,  here are some more scientific reports:

Definitely worth checking out an article and new set of scientifically backed maps produced by the USGS-led USA-National Phenology Network that shows just how unusually early spring is arriving in the United States.   

https://www.usgs.gov/news/just-how-early-spring-arriving-your-neighborhood-find-out-0

To see some specific examples of phenological changes occuring in Spring in the Northeast, check out: 

https://www.usanpn.org/files/shared/files/Changes_in_Phenology-NE.pdf

Back at Harvard Forest, researcher Joshua Rapp is busy collecting and measuring Maple syrup.  

This is what he's been finding since Feb. 18th about early spring harvest: 

This year I tapped the maples at Harvard Forest on February 18th and collected the first sap on the 19th, near the median day for the season start day around here. While the season started at the 'normal' time, the start of the season was anything but normal - 60 and 70 degree temps in the first week started the sap gushing and in less than 2 weeks have collected about half as much sap as we typically do in full season, and about the same amount as we did last year by this date even though last year's season started more than 2 weeks earlier. 

The colder temps predicted for the next few days will push the pause button for sap flow, but next week looks to be excellent sap flow weather again. The big question is whether the early season warmth foretells an early end of the season. If the season goes to the end of March as is typical, sap volumes may rival the high mark of 2013. If it ends early sap and syrup production may be more typical.

Stay tuned,

Josh  
--

Joshua M. Rapp, PhD

Harvard Forest, Harvard University

rapp@fas.harvard.edu / joshmrapp.com

And from  Drumlin Farm's  field sites....

Silver Maple by Sally Farrow
Drumlin Farm, Lincoln, Ma. 

The skunk cabbage is blooming by preschool pond , the silver maples and pussy willows are blooming in Boyce field.

2/25 I heard peepers calling and 3/1 I heard and saw wood frogs in preschool and Ice pond.
The ponds have refrozen but there is a gentle rain and I hope for some movement tonight
Happy Spring!

Sally Farrow

Excerpt from Early Spring; An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World by Amy Seidl: 

While I have spent time in regions of the world where global warming is more rapidly affecting ecosystems, I want to emphasize the changes I see in my landscape close to home-in my garden, in local woods, and ponds. It is in this everyday context that I notice the world entering flux.  The timing of seasonal events, for instance, is shifting:  lilacs are blooming earlier; gardens remain prolific well into fall, and butterflies appear weeks earlier than previously recorded....and the the start of maple sugaring rarely begins in early March as it historically did.... 

   With each year I am compelled to ask: How are natural communities and ecosystems where I live responding to climate change?  What does a thunderstorm in January signal?  ...As these events collect, I a realize how more and more of my observations reflect the predictions that climate scientists are making for New England-greater single precipitation events, warmer nights, shorter winters, and overall more variable weather.  While it remains difficult to draw casual relationships between global climate change and local weather, we are able to see how our local conditions increasingly resemble the forecasted predictions.*

* pages XII and XIII in Preface, Early Spring; An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World.

So Are We Having an Early Spring This Year or Not? 

Certainly we are seeing signs of an early spring on most fronts this year, but much of our phenological observations are not complete yet. We hope that over a thousand students will begin observing study trees and recording the state of the buds to report to Harvard Forest soon.  Buds, Leaves and Global Warming Project Ecologist, John O'Keefe, has indicated to us that spring phenology is highly variable based on his 27 years of observing timing of the emergence of leaves. He has seen that local weather in the key months of March and April seem to be the largest drivers of timing of leaf out.  So while the mild spell in February has helped swell the buds on many species, we won't know about the timing of leaf out until we actually see the leaves emerge...and then there is always the chance that a late frost could kill those early emerging leaves, so the jury is still out on early spring for our local trees.  Please get out and start recording some data to track it for us, and we will look forward to hearing back from you soon.  

Explore More about Spring Phenology:

Early Spring by Amy Seidl, Goodreads review and links 

 I recommend this book highly to those who want to explore this topic further.

 While the author is an ecologist, she writes in a highly accessible way that

 is engaging and ultimately relatable.  Very relevant to our Buds, Leaves and

 Global Warming Schoolyard project.  

Phenocam

Find current images of tree canopies that are updated daily

from sites all over the world, including this one from the 

Boston Common, along with several sites at Harvard Forest

and some Schoolyard Ecology sites. 

Buds, Leaves, and Global Warming Schoolyard protocol

Protocols, Photos of Buds, Related Teacher
Resources

Step By Step Phenology Activity.pdf

Lesson Plan for integrating timing of tree phenology with
other organisms in food web such as caterpillars and birds.

Sneak Preview of Budburst Activity

GLOBE program Lesson Plan for bringing branches inside to observe budburst in classroom prior to timing of buds opening outdoors in field site.
Involves sketching, observing, predicting...

Lamb or Lion? What is in store for trees, salamanders and us in this unusual season?

Will this "early spring" weather last through the season???  

  

Red Maple Buds from Hollis High School, New Hampshire.  Photo by Maryanne Rotelli

Schoolyard Ecology teacher, Maryanne Rotelli, commented,

Got the kids out before the nor'easter forecasted for Monday. Here are a couple of pictures of one of our red maples with flower buds. The other two red maples in our study are smaller and a little more sheltered and though they show signs of bud formation they aren't as far along as this tree. 

Harvard Forest Researcher, John O'Keefe is predicting "it should be quite an early spring but we'll see. We might have a 1/4 foot of snow on the ground early next week and we'll see what happens". Overall though he  expects that tree buds will "burst" early this year.  

Come to the Spring Workshop for Teachers at Harvard Forest on March 31st  to learn more about tracking this "early spring".  Email Pamela Snow at:  psnow@fas.harvard.edu to register.  

How do  you and your students think this cold weather will impact our trees?  

Speaking of Maples,  Harvard Forest Bullard Fellow Josh Rapp has been all over the news for his sugar maple research.  

Photos of Maple Syrup collection bags (left) and Maple Researcher, Joshua Rapp (right) are from the Worcester Telegram  and Gazette.



Up until now this has been a story about a remarkably early Maple Sugaring season. It might be worthwhile to share the following  great articles and videos with your students to get them thinking about erratic nature of our climate as evidenced in this crazy early spring we've been having.

While most of us think of March as the beginning of Maple Season in Massachusetts, this year, Joshua Rapp began collecting sap at Harvard Forest on Feb. 1st.  This is about a month and a half earlier than last year, which was a relatively late sugaring season.

Recent weather has been warm enough to stop the sap flow. Maple sap flows best when night time temperatures go below freezing and day time temps are above freezing.  Researcher  Rapp expects temperatures to fall back to more spring-like levels, allowing the flow to start again. Stay tuned to see if he's right!


Access the recent  article and video in the Worcester Telegram  news clips (Chicago Tribune, NY times, etc.)  as well as Dr. Rapp's website and photo gallery in the HF homepage highlight put together by Clarisse Hart. in the link below.

HF homepage highlight

Lots of salamanders, spring peepers and wood frogs have been on the move according to the Vernal Pool Listserv reports flooding my email inbox since early March.   

So far Salamander migration this year has looked like this....

Will some late migrants be having travel across this? 

Photos from The Vernal Pool Association

To get a sense of how the amphibian migration is playing out across New England, here are some excerpts I have compiled:

Female Wood Frog with Eggs

Migration begins in  Southeastern Massachusetts and Connecticut  on February 24th!!

Last night, my open-window olfactory survey was ineffective, as the high winds, heavy rains, and volume of freshly crushed tree limbs disguised the road surface and the masked the smell of the carnage.  This morning, after the sun rose while the roads were still wet, some of that carnage remained and it’s apparent that Spotted Salamanders and Wood Frogs moved in large numbers, last night in Moosup, CT.

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February 24:  Saw two spotted salamanders and three wood frogs in S. Easton, MA, tonight. We might see a big push if it rains in the next couple of weeks!

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March 9th:  

hi folks!  Just reporting a cacophony of wood frogs vocalizing in Wheaton's vernal pools this afternoon

From the north shore of Boston:

I checked a vernal pool in Lynn Woods on 3/11/16 and saw LOTS of spotted salamander spermatophores. I heard one lonely wood frog calling but no chorus or eggs yet. I imagine it's happened since all the rain we had this week, but haven't been back up to check yet. 

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There were some peepers calling in Reading today. Pools were really low here, and I'm seeing that condition across a lot of NE Mass. Expecting some action tonight north of Boston.

From Metro-West of Boston:  

From Lexington, MA on March 11th :   

(A) BIG NIGHT at Minuteman Tech in Lexington MA !!  4 or more spotted salamander congresses at at one of Minuteman's upper twin pools, maybe 80-100 total.  Already spermatophores, but we did find some active "parties." Saw fairy shrimp in the other upper pool, but only one salamander.  Usually there are more.  Lower pond near power station had around 20 salamanders that seemed to just gathering for a congress with a few newly deposited spermatophores.   Also wood frogs breeding (plus saw some green frogs and bullfrogs and heard peepers).  Water level is unusually low.  This is one of the 3 earliest "Big Nights" in the 27 years I've been going out (Other years = March 9, 1998, 2001)  Happy Spring!!  Fran Ludwig

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From our HF Schoolyard Vernal Pool project leader, in Lincoln, Ma., Sally Farrow on March 12, 2016:  

At Drumlin Farm in Lincoln MA yellow spotted salamanders were seen in Ice pond and the Old Deer pen vernal pool. Wood Frogs were found in 4 ponds. We have fairy shrimp in 3 vernal pools. No egg masses or migrating salamanders were seen. We will keep checking. Our ponds are lower this year and we continue to follow the hydrology of our 8 ponds as part of the Harvard Forest Schoolyard LTER program.

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From Maynard, Mass.on March 11:  

In a little survey this weekend of vernal pools I found 7 in Maynard dry to almost no water. One location that has 5 together within 200 yards two of the pools I have never in 26 years seen dry till this year.  In Stow two Vp I checked one was 70 percent smaller and only 4 inches of water. The other had typical amount of water about the same as last year. This pool had spermataphores but both had no calling wood frogs or peepers. In Littleton one pool was mostly a puddle and another had a couple feet of water albeit 4 feet lower than last year.

From  Concord Area of New Hampshire: 

 March 12: 

Heard wood frogs chorus today for the first time this year in Jefferson 

(01522), at the pool across the road. Some at least must have crossed 

Thursday or early Friday, since fresh frog corpses on the road today. 

The pool is at least 12"lower than usual, and greatly contracted. Eggs 

next week?

From Central Massachusetts:

Montague and Amherst Ma. on March 11:

Light rain in the 50s this evening (3/11). Enormous wood frog numbers and two Jefferson-type salamanders crossing road in Montague, MA around 8:30pm, with peepers and wood frogs chorusing. Around 11, there were 6 more jeffs at that site, one spotted there and a couple spotteds elsewhere in Montague. In Amherst around 9, there was a slow but steady flow of male and female spotted salamanders to the Henry street site, a few peepers and wood frogs and lots more people.

From Western Massachusetts:

Whately, Franklin County on March 17:   

Arrived home from work about 9pm through hard rain, and found lots of Spotted Salamanders, Wood Frogs, and peepers on the roads--many more than were evident during 3/10 rains last week.  Lots of calling peepers and Wood Frogs in the pools, too, though that has been the case all this past week.  We headed over to our Williamsburg site and found one Jefferson salamander in the pool, along with one Painted Turtle suspended in the water column--our first reptile of the year--and many, many Fairy Shrimp, leeches, and Red-spotted Newts.  Every Spotted Salamander we picked up, whether at the house, in Williamsburg, or in between, was a male.

I"ve noticed some themes in the entries above:  

1.  Most folks seeing early migration of amphibians to vernal pools.

2. Many folks noticing lower than normal water levels in pools.

When have you and your students found evidence of amphibian migration near you this season??? 

To see a brief video produced this Month in Smithfield, RI. as part of a series by Jonathan Twining called, Vernal Pool Chronicles , go to YouTube page (youtube.com/vernalpoolchronicles).  

Jonathan suggests, If you are looking for tools to capture good underwater video of amphibians in vernal pools, I highly recommend using GoPro cameras with LumeCube lighting (lumecube.com).  The Lume Cubes are waterproof and can be used for both video lights and flashes for photography.  They work very well.

In case you want to get MANY more updates on vernal pools throughout the region you can sign up for this free listserv described below, or look for the Vernal Pool Association's website and Facebook page.  

The Vernal Pool Listserv provides a forum to discuss topics relating to vernal pools and vernal pool ecology. This group is unmoderated, but is monitored by Vernal Pool Association (www.vernalpool.org). Discussion is encouraged about scientific research, on-going vernal pool education projects at the elementary through graduate school levels, and about the first spotted salamander sightings of spring, among other things.

http://www.vernalpool.org/listserv.html

What does your Spring look like????

Please send us photos of your field site before and/or after the predicted cold spell to help us tell how this story plays out! 

Overall, the sap was sweet but didn't flow all that much

 Joshua Rapp

Harvard Forest Post-Doctoral Researcher 

Sugar maples are economically important in the northeastern U.S. and adjacent Canada because of maple syrup production, and concerns exist about the viability of maple populations and the maple syrup industry under a warming climate. I am collecting long term records on sap flow and sap sugar content from across New England to understand if these records reflect the resource status of trees and whether this is correlated with variation in seed production across years. This regional study is complemented by detailed observations of sap production, flower and seed production, and pollinator populations at the Harvard Forest to investigate how stored resources and pollination limitation influence masting in sugar maple.

*Excerpt from Harvard Forest researcher profile at: 

http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/joshua-m-rapp