Historical tree phenology data across contrasting sites in the Congo Basin

TL;DR

This paper introduces a large historical dataset of tree phenology in the Congo Basin, offering insights into how tropical trees respond to climate change.

Contribution

The paper provides the first complete historical phenology dataset for the Congo Basin, spanning over 20 years and 876 species.

Findings

The dataset includes ~10 million observations from 6339 tree individuals across two bioclimatic regions.

Phenology metrics such as leafing, flowering, and fruiting are documented for long-term ecological analysis.

The data were collected through expert transcription and validated crowdsourcing methods.

Abstract

We present a unique dataset of historical tropical tree phenology observations at two sites from different bioclimatic regions across the Congo Basin. We cover both the Atlantic Mayombe forest and the tropical forest in the central Congo Basin. To our knowledge this is the complete extant historical (1937–1957) phenology data across the Congo basin. The data contains ~10 million observations of 876 species, across 6339 individuals, and phenology metrics including leaf, flowering, and fruiting phenology. The data were recovered through expert transcription and validated community science based crowdsourcing. These data may provide a reference baseline and key information on how tree species are responding to a changing climate.

Figures