Dittmann, E.

Koch, E.

Lipa, W.

Menzel, A.

Nekovar, J.

Sparks, T.H.

Vliet, A.J.H., van

Advances in Science and Research

English

Name not available

COST725 – establishing a European phenological data platform for climatological applications: major results

Wageningen Yield 

Adv. Sci. Res., 3, 119–122, 2009
www.adv-sci-res.net/3/119/2009/
© Author(s) 2009. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Advances in
Science and
Research
8th
EM
S
AnnualM
eeting
a
nd
7th
European
Conferen
ce
o
n
Applied
Clim
atology
2008
COST725 – establishing a European phenological data
platform for climatological applications: major results
E. Koch1, E. Dittmann2, W. Lipa1, A. Menzel3, J. Nekovar4, T. H. Sparks5, and A. J. H. van Vliet6
1Zentralanstalt fu¨r Meteorologie und Geodynamik, Vienna, Austria
2Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach, Germany
3Technische Universita¨t Mu¨nchen, Center of Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan, Freising, Germany
4Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Prague, Czech Republic
5Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poznan, Poland
6Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Received: 17 August 2009 – Revised: 7 September 2009 – Accepted: 10 September 2009 – Published: 13 October 2009
Abstract. COST – European COoperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research – is the oldest
and widest intergovernmental European network for cooperation in research. COST Action 725 (running from
2004 to 2009) aimed at and succeeded in establishing a European data base of phenological observations,
classifying the data according to one common system and using the data in scientific peer reviewed papers.
COST725 organized many workshops and conferences that helped to bring together not only the European,
but also the global, phenological community. One of the highlights of COST725 was the boxed entry “Pheno-
logical responses to climate in Europe: the COST725 project” in the AR4 of IPCC in 2007. And last, but not
least, although the action ended in April 2009 a follow up will be launched in 2010 under EUMETNET/ECSN.
1 Introduction
In the 19th century phenological recording was a traditional
activity, but interest in observation declined in the early 20th
century. However, in recent decades, phenology has rapidly
become an important tool for climate change impact studies
and COST725 contributed significantly to this renewed inter-
est. The phenological responses of plants to climate warming
are very strong in temperate and cool climate zones (Menzel
et al., 2006). Furthermore phenological change is relatively
easy to identify, especially in comparison with changes to
distribution, fecundity, population size, morphology etc. In
Europe, where the strongest and most widespread tradition of
phenological monitoring is found, widespread phenological
observations, especially in plants, existed, but were collected
and archived by many different organisations with different
data policies, data formats etc. Observation rules were only
partly comparable and differing lengths of time-series made
work on the data at a European wide level quite difficult. This
was the starting point for COST725 (Koch et al., 2005).
Correspondence to: E. Koch
(e.koch@zamg.ac.at)
2 Results
2.1 The history and present status of plant phenology in
Europe (Nekova´rˇ et al., 2008)
This book, summarising the history and current status of phe-
nology in Europe, will be a valuable reference for pheno-
logical researchers for many years to come; it is the first
time that such an extensive summary has been compiled.
It is also available for free download at http://topshare.wur.
nl/cost725/70987. The book contains contributions from all
27 COST725 members plus Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegov-
ina, Montenegro and the International Phenological Gardens.
A chapter on old international phenological networks com-
pletes the presentation of the extant national European net-
works (Fig. 1).
In fall 2008 a workshop on the benefit of old phenologi-
cal series was organized in Rome with 22 oral presentations.
The workshop proceedings are available in a special issue of
The Italian Journal of Agrometeorology/Rivista Italiana di
Agrometeorologia published in 2009.
Published by Copernicus Publications.
120 E. Koch et al.: Establishing a European phenological data platform for climatological applications
Figure 1. EPHEMERIDES of the SOCIETATIS METEOROLOG-
ICAE PALATINAE, first edition published in 1783 with phenolog-
ical observations from Mannheim for 1781.
2.2 The common database
The outcome of a questionnaire on phenological metadata
helped to build the structure of the common database of
COST725. To make the entries in the database comparable
COST725 members agreed to apply the BBCH scale (Meier,
1997) to all national phenological observations across Eu-
rope following the recommendations of Bruns and Vliet
(2003). This was a very important step towards the uni-
fication and standardization of phenological observations.
As a follow up COST725 members and invited experts de-
veloped “Guidelines for plant phenological observations”.
WCMP/WCP/WMO accepted these guidelines as a stan-
dard for phenological observations and published them at
http://www.omm.urv.cat/documentation.html .
In 2009 the web portal of COST725 was opened with data
download-facilities and a graphical presentation of pheno-
logical data (Lipa et al., 2009 and Fig. 2).
2.3 COST725 “Meta analysis”, a major contribution to
IPCC, AR4, WG II report
WG3 of COST725 published a meta analysis of European
phenological data (Menzel et al., 2006). In the IPCC AR4
WG II report the COST725 study was one of the major con-
tributions for the assessment of observed changes and re-
sponses in natural and managed systems, using 125 000 ob-
servational series of 542 plant and 19 animal species in 21
European countries for the period 1971–2000. The aggrega-
tion of the time series revealed a strong signal across Europe
of changing spring and summer phenology: Spring and sum-
mer exhibited a clear advance by 2.5 days/decade in Europe.
Mean autumn trends were close to zero, but suggested more
of a delay when the average trend per country was exam-
ined (1.3 days/decade). The patterns of observed changes in
spring (leafing, flowering and animal phases) were spatially
consistent and matched measured national warming across
European countries; thus the phenological evidence quanti-
tatively mirrors regional climate warming. About 80% of
spring/summer phases were found to be advancing. The find-
ings strongly support previous studies in Europe, confirm-
ing them as free from bias towards reporting global climate
change impacts.
2.4 CR Climate Research, Special 19, Vol. 39, Num-
ber 3, 2009 with Open Access (free downloads
http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/cr/v39/n3/)
This special issue gives further examples of COST725 col-
laboration; nine papers are presented based on the work of
35 scientists from 12 countries dealing e.g. with long data se-
ries from Europe, examining for correlations between them
and looking at temporal changes in both trends and tempera-
ture responsiveness. One paper examines changes in a num-
ber of potentially important summaries of daily temperature
data, including thresholds and temperature accumulations.
These show some clear changes in European temperatures,
and maps of these put a spatial context on the change. Phe-
nology in the Baltic countries of Latvia and Lithuania are the
focus of a paper where the influence of the North Atlantic
Oscillation and precipitation is also examined. Another study
focuses on phenological change in flowering within Europe’s
last remaining primeval lowland forest. Change is apparent
even in this pristine environment reminding us that the con-
sequences of a changing climate extend beyond those areas
directly modified by Man. A study within the European Alps
looks at changes in phenology with increasing altitude and
changes in phenology in relation to location, phase timing
and human population density are looked at in a subsequent
paper. A paper on Bayesian methods examining phenolog-
ical changes in 2600 European series confirmed that recent
phenological change has not been linear but rather has an
abrupt change associated with rising temperature. Phenolog-
ical trends were most marked in NW Europe. Higher tech
Adv. Sci. Res., 3, 119–122, 2009 www.adv-sci-res.net/3/119/2009/
E. Koch et al.: Establishing a European phenological data platform for climatological applications 121
 
 
Figure 2. Graphic presentation of time series and some statistics from at 
www.zamg.ac.at/cost725 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 2. Graphic presentation of time series and some statistics from www.zamg.ac.at/cost725.
applications of phenology are considered in two papers. The
use of digital photography on flux towers and the relationship
between phenology and gross primary productivity are the
major concerns of a Swiss study: different parts of the forest
canopy were identified for examination of the development
of individual tree species. The use of satellite imagery on a
8 km grid examines the beginning and end of the growing
season in Fennoscandia and compares these data with local
records of Betula phenology: though changes in the growing
season over the study area are heterogeneous on average a 6
day/decade lengthening of the growing season was detected.
3 Conclusions
Over the last decade the barriers towards phenological col-
laboration between European countries have been broken
down. COST725 has made a substantial contribution to that
collaboration. The importance of phenological recording has
been made very clear to those countries/organisations con-
sidering cutting back their programmes. New schemes, for
example in the Republic of Ireland and Sweden, have been
inspired by this work, and a revival of former networks is un-
derway in Poland and Hungary. The prospects for increased
phenological research have never looked so encouraging.
Acknowledgements. The authors and all COST725 members
want to express their thanks to COST, the European COoperation
in the field of Scientific and Technical Research, and especially its
scientific officers P. Nejedlik, E. P. de Rose and C. Petite.
Edited by: E. Koch
Reviewed by: two anonymous referees
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Figure 3. Box showing results of COST725 data analyses of Menzel et al. GCB 2006, 
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Adv. Sci. Res., 3, 119–122, 2009 www.adv-sci-res.net/3/119/2009/


122 E. Koch et al.: Establishing a European phenological data platform for climatological applications

Cost725 establishing a European phenological data platform.

Growth Stages of Mono- and Dicotyledonous Plants, Blackwell Wissenschaftsverlag,

Standardisation of phenological monitoring in

COST725 – establishing a European phenological data platform for climatological applications: major results

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