Cherry Tree to Track the Climate

Explanation: Springtime in Japan heralds the beautiful blossoming of its multitudes of cherry trees, the Someiyshino. But here is a special individual, a specimen tree marked and preserved for a particular function: to help track the weather and the climate.

This tree is being observed over time under auspices of the Japan Meteorological Agency's Kyoto Local Meteorological Observatory, as noted in the prominent sign.

As reported by Aono and Kazui (2008), springtime temperatures in Kyoto over 732 years, since the 9th century, have been deduced and reconstructed by using historical data on cherry tree blossoming dates. Results found four phases of cold weather during 1330-1350, 1520-1550, 1670-1700, and 1825-1830.

Further, this cherry tree is but one of a suite of 12 plant species being tracked for blooming, budding, and leaf-tint or leaf-fall dates, to fill out the record, along with first-singing or first-sightings dates of another 11 species of insects and animals (JMA 2007).

And today, the tracking legacy continues.

Additional notes: The Somei Yoshino cherry trees in, and imported from, Japan, are widely used and sold as ornamentals, and their origins include hybridization among species.


Information:
     Aono, Y., and K. Kazui. 2008. Phenological data series of cherry tree flowering in Kyoto, Japan, and its application to reconstruction of springtime temperatures since the 9th century. International Journal of Climatology 28:905-914. DOI: 10.1002/joc.1594.
    Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). 2007. Long-term trends on phenological events in Japan. Summary of "Report on Climate Change 2005". 4 pp.

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week