The issue of global warming or climate change, has fostered a great deal of interest to ecologists around the world. Climate change is a significant topic because of its adverse effects on the life cycles of several mammals and plants. The study of the impacts made by climate change on the timing of life cycle events is called phenology. This research will evaluate the particular ways that climate change may be detrimental to plant health and plant diversity by analyzing plant phenology observations. For this study we will analyze the publicly available data of leaf development and phenophases at the Harvard Forest NEON terrestrial site in Petersham, Massachusetts. Using two phenophases of leaf development: percentage of canopy that is full with leaves and percentage of canopy that is full with colored leaves, we will establish whether there is a correlation between a warmer climate and the timing of fall leaf color and fall leaf fall rate.
