News - Ukraine

 

In 2015 GLOBE Ukraine have held a Student Phenology Campaign called "Cherry Ukraine". The campaign lasted from February till May, 2015. The aim of the campaign was to engage students from Ukraine in investigation of the vegetation cycles of wild cherry (Prunus cerasus) and Nanking cherry (Prunus tomentosa). During three months the participants were observing budbursts of the cherry species, measuring solar noon temperature and reporting their data to the GLOBE website. Teachers who had registered for the campaign had the opportunity to attend an online workshop were they had undergone training in GLOBE protocols on Atmosphere and Biosphere (Green-Up/Green-Down). After completing three different home tasks on featured topics 75 teachers received GLOBE Teacher Certificates. Overall 686 students and 89 teachers from 70 schools and educational institutions from all over Ukraine participated in the campaign.

Based on schools' reports an interactive map with students' data about the beginning of budburst in different parts of Ukraine was created. The map contains information about the location of the sites, names of the species and dates of their budburst, students who performed observations and the links to the schools' webpages on the GLOBE website for detailed information. So, the students had the opportunity to investigate the vegetation cycles of wild cherry and Nanking cherry and research questions about their patterns. 

After analyzing the data the students come to conclusion that budburst of the observed species depends greatly on the air temperature. When the temperatures dropped the budburst slowed down and vice versa. Large-scale budbust for most of the observed treas of wild cherry started on the 10-15 of April when the night and day temperatures settled on the plus values. On the contrary, for Nanking cherry the budburst in all parts of Ukraine had started 7-9 days earlier which resulted in loss of some leaves and branches due to cold. Thus, the students concluded that budbust depends not only on the air temperature, but also on the tree specie. Because Nanking cherry is not native to Ukraine its vegetation cycles may differ.

The map can be found here: https://nenc.gov.ua/kapibara/.  The webpage of the campaign: https://nenc.gov.ua/old/2312.html. The photos of the students can be found in the album on GLOBE Ukraine Facebook page. 

Both students and teachers enjoyed the campaign very much. The number of data entries on Ukrainian webpage have increased from 17 600 to 22 000. We hope to continue our work for the next year with more engagement and improvements.