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Declining phenology observations by the Japan Meteorological Agency

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 5, pages 886–887 (2021)Cite this article

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To the Editor — The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) recently announced plans to dramatically reduce their level of phenological monitoring in 2021. The cuts are unfortunate as the Japanese phenological monitoring network is one of the world’s most extensive, spanning an unusually large number of sites, latitudinal and temperature gradients, and diversity of species. This network has provided unique value to Japanese scientists and the global scientific community working to understand the biological impacts of climate change1,2,3. The JMA says that it is reducing its monitoring because of difficulties observing some animal species, particularly at urban sites, with inadequate funding probably an additional issue4. However, at a time when scientists in Japan and elsewhere are focusing more attention on climate change, these cuts are short-sighted.

To discontinue so much of this programme, when the pace and impacts of climate change are rapidly increasing, seems ill-advised and misguided. As each new year is added to such data sets, they become ever more valuable for understanding the biological effects of climate change and forecasting of future impacts8,9. Data from years with extreme weather events are particularly valuable. In coming years, the JMA phenology network could investigate if there are temperatures at which plant and animal species stop responding to climate change, or variation in how diverse species respond to extreme weather events, urbanization and warming across their ranges. With reduced monitoring, especially of the animal species, such opportunities will be more limited or even lost altogether.

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Fig. 1: JMA phenology observation sites and two observed species.

Hiroyoshi Higuchi (b and c)

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Acknowledgements

The financial support was from KRF-2021R1A2C1011213 and MOE-2021003360002, 2020002990006.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Hideyuki Doi, Hiroyoshi Higuchi, Hiromi Kobori, Sangdon Lee, Richard B. Primack.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Information Science, University of Hyogo, Kobe, Japan

    Hideyuki Doi

  2. Research and Education Center for Natural Sciences, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan

    Hiroyoshi Higuchi

  3. Faculty of Environmental Studies, Tokyo City University, Yokohama, Japan

    Hiromi Kobori

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, College of Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea

    Sangdon Lee

  5. Biology Department, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Richard B. Primack

Authors
  1. Hideyuki Doi
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  2. Hiroyoshi Higuchi
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Correspondence to Hideyuki Doi.

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Doi, H., Higuchi, H., Kobori, H. et al. Declining phenology observations by the Japan Meteorological Agency. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 886–887 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01459-3

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