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Simple method to detect year-to-year variability of blooming phenology of Cerasus × yedoensis by digital camera

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Abstract

The year-to-year variability of the blooming phenology of cherry trees is important as a proxy climate indicator and strongly affects cultural ecosystem services. Observation of blooming phenology at multiple points requires a simple and flexible approach. We examined changes in the canopy gap fraction extracted from binarized upward images taken periodically beneath a Cerasus × yedoensis ‘Somei-yoshino’ tree. The gap fraction decreased rapidly after the start of bloom, reached a minimum value at full bloom, and began to increase again, but then decreased rapidly during leaf flush. These changes reflect the phenology of blooming and leaf flush after flower drop of ‘Somei-yoshino’. These characteristics allow detection of the year-to-year variability of the bloom and leaf-flush phenology of cherry and other deciduous tree species that show the same patterns.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by KAKENHI (25281014; Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research B and 17K00542; Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research C) of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. We thank Drs. H. M. Noda (National Institute for Environmental Studies) and T. Motohka (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) for providing photographs. We thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their kind and constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research and Development Center for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), 3173-25 Showa-machi, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 236-0001, Japan

    Shin Nagai & Hideki Kobayashi

  2. Institute of Arctic Climate and Environment Research, JAMSTEC, 3173-25 Showa-machi, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 236-0001, Japan

    Shin Nagai, Kyoko Ikeda & Hideki Kobayashi

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  1. Shin Nagai
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  2. Kyoko Ikeda
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  3. Hideki Kobayashi
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Correspondence to Shin Nagai.

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Nagai, S., Ikeda, K. & Kobayashi, H. Simple method to detect year-to-year variability of blooming phenology of Cerasus × yedoensis by digital camera. Int J Biometeorol 62, 2183–2188 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-018-1620-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-018-1620-5

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