Data Set Citation:
When using this data, please cite the data package:
Maruyama N and Fukano Y.
Long-term flowering records of herbaceous plants in Tokyo, Japan during 1994-2015 through citizen science
ERDP-2021-05.1.2 (https://db.cger.nies.go.jp/JaLTER/metacat/metacat/ERDP-2021-05.1.2/jalter-en)
General Information:
Title:Long-term flowering records of herbaceous plants in Tokyo, Japan during 1994-2015 through citizen science
Identifier:ERDP-2021-05.1.2
Abstract:
We provide a 22-year period (1994–2015) dataset of flowering records of herbaceous plant species in Tokyo, Japan. Trained volunteers of the citizen group conducted field surveys using a citizen science approach. During monthly surveys, the volunteers recorded the flowering phenology of plants in an area of the Institute for Sustainable Agro-ecosystem Services and Tanashi Forest (The University of Tokyo) in Nishitokyo City, Tokyo, Japan. In all, 5982 observations on 401 species including 11 subspecies, 44 varieties, 6 forma from 70 families of herbaceous plants were collected in Tokyo. These data provide an overview of the flowering phenology of herbaceous plants in urban areas, where regular monitoring is often difficult due to the environment being highly urbanized and subject to intensive weed control. The complete data set for this abstract published in the Data Paper section of the journal is available in electronic format in MetaCat in JaLTER at http://db.cger.nies.go.jp/JaLTER/metacat/metacat/ERDP-2021-05.1/jalter-en.
Keywords:
  • long-term monitoring
  • flowering phenology
  • weed
  • agricultural field
  • urban area
Data Table, Image, and Other Data Details:
Metadata download: Ecological Metadata Language (EML) File
Data Table:FloweringPhenology.cs ( View Metadata | Download File download)
Data Table:SpeciesNameList.csv ( View Metadata | Download File download)
Other Data:data_descriptor ( View Metadata | Download File download)

Involved Parties

Data Set Owners:
Individual: Noriko Maruyama
Organization:Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Address:
1-1-1 Midori,
Nishitokyo, Tokyo 188-0002 Japan
Individual: Yuya Fukano
Organization:Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Address:
1-1-1 Midori,
Nishitokyo, Tokyo 188-0002 Japan
Email Address:
yuya.fukano@gmail.com
Data Set Contacts:
Individual: Yuya Fukano
Organization:Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Address:
1-1-1 Midori,
Nishitokyo, Tokyo 188-0002 Japan
Email Address:
yuya.fukano@gmail.com

Data Set Characteristics

Geographic Region:
Geographic Description:a part of an area of the Institute for Sustainable Agro-ecosystem Services and Tanashi Fores
Bounding Coordinates:
West:  139.536388889  degrees
East:  139.543333333  degrees
North:  35.7408333333  degrees
South:  35.7322222222  degrees
Mimimum Altitude:58.0  meter
Maximum Altitude:60.0  meter
Geographic Region:
Geographic Description:Tanashi Forest of the University of Tokyo, Nishitokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Bounding Coordinates:
West:  139.535833333  degrees
East:  139.539166667  degrees
North:  35.7408333333  degrees
South:  35.7363888889  degrees
Mimimum Altitude:57.0  meter
Maximum Altitude:60.0  meter
Time Period:
Begin:
1994-03-01
End:
2015-12-31

Sampling, Processing and Quality Control Methods

Step by Step Procedures
Step 1:
Description:

Sample site

The ISAS and Tanashi Forests, owned by the University of Tokyo, are located in Nishitokyo City, Tokyo, in the Kanto region surrounded by a residential area in the warm temperate zone (the ISAS: 35°43′56′′-27′′N, 139°53′36′′-66′′E, 58-60 m above sea level [asl], Tanashi Forest: 35°44′11′′-27′′N, 139°32′09′′-21′′, 57-60 asl; Figure 1). The area is composed of two environmentally different sites: the forest area and agricultural fields. The Tanashi Forest area measures 9.1 ha and includes ~244 tree species. The ISAS, an agricultural area adjacent to Tanashi Forest, measures 22.2 ha and includes the upland field and the paddy field. Hence, the observed plants comprise a wide variety of species typical to both forests and agricultural fields. During 1994–2015 the mean annual air temperature and precipitation observed by the Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS) at Fuchu, approximately 10 km southwest of the study site, were 15.4°C and 1593 mm, respectively.

Step 2:
Description:

Data collection

The members of the Citizen Group for Nature Observation (“Toudai-nojo, ensyu-rin no sonzoku wo negau kai” in Japanese) conducted the field survey in ISAS and Tanashi Forest 1-3 times every month from March 1994 to December 2015 (except for January and February in 1994, and 1996, and December 2013). The observers comprised three or more members of the citizen group (not necessarily the same person) and surveyed a part of the ISAS and Tanashi Forest (Figure 1) for about three hours, mostly during the mornings. They recorded the following data: (a) date of observation, (b) species name of all vascular plant species that were flowering. It should be noted that this was not an exhaustive flowering record as the observers did not always traverse the same route in each survey. In addition, this dataset should be treated as presence-only rather than presence-absence since observations were limited to plants flowering during surveys. We excluded phenological records of crops and horticulture species. To organize species names, we referred to ‘Ylist’ (http://ylist.info; Yonekura & Kajita, 2003). Most of the plants were identified in species-level and some were subspecies-, varieties- and forma-level. Species identification was performed according to the observers' written records, so there is a possibility that the data contain incorrect species. In total, 5982 records belonging to 401 species including 11 subspecies, 44 varieties, 6 forma from 70 families were collected. It should be noted that the number of observations over the 22- year period varied from species to species.

Data Set Usage Rights

This dataset is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/4.0/deed.en).
Access Control:
Auth System:JaLTER
Order:allowFirst
Allow: [read] public
Metadata download: Ecological Metadata Language (EML) File