Graphs of Spring 2014 Budding

By Schoolyard Teacher, Maryanne Rotelli, Hollis High School, New Hampshire

How do your budding times compare?  

National Climate Assessment (U.S. Global Change Research Program) released the Third National Climate Assessment  

A 60 person Federal Advisory Committee (The “National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee” or NCADAC) has overseen the development of this report.  

Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present. Corn producers in Iowa, oyster growers in Washington State, and maple syrup producers in Vermont are all observing climate-related changes that are outside of recent experience. So, too, are coastal planners in Florida, water managers in the arid Southwest, city dwellers from Phoenix to New York, and Native Peoples on tribal lands from Louisiana to Alaska. This National Climate Assessment (NCA) concludes that the evidence of human-induced climate change continues to strengthen and that impacts are increasing across the country.

Read the full report.  The NCA is now available for download on the http://globalchange.gov website.

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

Teacher Resource:  Weather Underground Climate Change Blog

Here is a really interesting climate change resource that Dr. O'Keefe told me about. I think your students would really find it engaging- hook them in with great graphics tied to very updated climate information. Great practice analyzing data graphs, maps, etc.   Dr. Jeff Master's blog is connected to  the Weather Underground website. Right now he is featuring an article about the famous Keeling curve study related to CO 2 in the atmosphere: having its funding cut...check it out at :

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html