Citizen Science: linking the recent rapid advances of plant flowering in Canada with climate variability

The timing of crucial events in plant life cycles is shifting in response to climate change. We use phenology records from PlantWatch Canada ‘Citizen Science’ networks to study recent rapid shifts of flowering phenology and its relationship with climate. The average first flower bloom day of 19 Canadian plant species has advanced by about 9 days during 2001–2012. 73% of the rapid and unprecedented first bloom day advances are explained by …