🌿 Ecoblitz-Analysis: Investigating Climate & Biodiversity 🌿
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From agriculture and infrastructure to energy and water supplies, climate plays a crucial role in societal functionality and health. As climate change leads to increasingly volatile weather patterns, understanding its effects on biodiversity becomes more critical. This project utilized multiple datasets, including weather data and flower phenology data. The weather dataset was constructed using two local sources: a snowpack dataset from a station approximately 9 miles from the flower survey area, provided by the California Department of Water Resources through the California Data Exchange Center (CDEC), and a temperature dataset from the National Weather Service (NWS) station at the Reno Airport, about 4 miles from the survey area. The phenology dataset was gathered from TMCC's Ecoblitz events, where faculty and students recorded plant observations using the iNaturalist app. This study focused on identifying factors influencing blooming patterns in Nevada and analyzing how climate variability impacts plant life.
By integrating these data sources, this study explored how climate variability influenced local biodiversity, particularly plant phenology.
Data Processing
Data cleaning and statistical analysis were performed using R.
Results & Findings
A detailed report summarizing the findings of this analysis can be accessed below:
Accessing the Project
If you're interested in exploring the data or reviewing the source code, visit the project's GitHub repository:
Acknowledgments
This research was conducted as part of a research grant and was mentored by Eriko Sakamura. My research partner for this project was Seth Miller.
Additional support provided by:
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 🚀