2023-2028 trial participants: observations start on 1 April

Observation protocols

For macro-garden participants

ODK form

ODK is a more stable, efficient, and easier way of entering your precious data. We highly recommend you to use this app, in order to simplify your measurements. You only need to download the app and scan the QRcode you see on the right. If you are an Apple user, the Enketo form is also available for you on the link below.

When you open ODK you will find the forms you need called:

SurvivalHeightAbies

SurvivalHeightFagus

SenescenceFagus

The ENKETO Webform

If you do not have an Android phone you are welcome to continue using the Enketo Webform, with which you are familiar already from the Spring germination data collection effort. However, please be aware that this form is not as stable as ODK.

There are three ENKETO webforms available for you to make observations in your macro-garden, one for Abies and two for Fagus.

Fagus Senescence: https://enketo.ona.io/x/6t0HcvKE

Fagus Height: https://enketo.ona.io/x/eS3mbXga

Abies Height: https://enketo.ona.io/x/cLUko7Ck

You can open them in your computer browser to familiarize yourself with them, and in the field, you can open them on your smartphone. They work offline too, however, when you open them for the first time, you have to have an internet connection.

If you received only Abies seeds, you have to fill in only the Abies form, if you received only Fagus seeds, you have to fill the two Fagus forms (one for senescence and one for height and survival), and if you have both, you have to fill all three forms.

The forms know about the composition of your macro-garden, so only species and provenances that your garden contains will be proposed. Additionally, you will have the option to add other provenances, e.g. if you took up extra seeds from another participants or you received some seeds bags accidentally.

Observe your seedlings starting from the NW corner

As in the germination monitoring, you will go through the whole macro-garden and collect data on seedling survival. Start observing from the North West corner of your garden, and move from left to right, and from the top to the bottom, as if you were reading a book. Your observations will be split into different forms of ~20 families (see below), nevertheless, you should respect this order. If you perform your observations across different days, mark the family where you stopped and continue from there the next day. You may wish to mark the NW corner of the garden with a coloured tag or a flag to help future observations.

Fall survival and height data collection (Abies and Fagus)

Given the patchy germination observed, we will now count the number of surviving Abies seedlings on two quarters of the planting area and on the whole row for Fagus families.

Height at the end of the growing season is tightly linked to the performance of seedlings. It is thus primordial to have a good estimate of this trait for each family.

We implemented a simple form to do a single round of observation at fall.

The idea is to measure the height of 10 individuals per family, from the soil up to the apical bud. Those 10 individuals should represent the whole row or box of each family. We ask you to measure one randomly chosen individual every ten centimeters along the row.

Abies measurement

Fagus measurement

Fall senescence (for Fagus only)

Senescence is a crucial moment of the life cycle of trees to observe, in order to understand the growth duration of individuals. Senescence is of fundamental importance in adaptation processes to different environmental conditions but is less often measured than spring phenology.

We implemented a very quick form in order to monitor senescence once a week or more if you feel so. One family should take one minute to be monitored.

At least once a week, please observe the Fagus leaf fall phenology by estimating the percentage of leaves you see in each color. This measurement is at the family level and not at the individual level. You just have to click on which color/stages you see within each family. You can click on several stages, and then give the percentage of how many individuals are at each visible stage. You will be able to take photos at the end of the form.

Especially if you use the Enketo Webform, remember to submit your form after having observed ~20 families to prevent data loss

The forms are informed about the number of independent seed origins (families) that you have in your garden. In theory, you could submit a single form for your whole garden at once. However, we do not recommend this. This is because long forms (that loop through many families) are slow and unstable. Thereby the form will ask you how many families you would like to observe. We advise that you give a number around 20, which is the default value. The exact number doesn't matter and if you have a slow phone, you may choose less. Then, you will be be provided with questions related to seedling survival and height and the developmental stages of the seedlings 20 times, once for each family. Complete these questions and submit your form! Then, you will be taken back to the starting page, and can start a new form for the following 20 families. When you are reaching the end of the nursery, you can count exactly how many families are left, and give that number in your last form. If you made a mistake, and you have less families than what you gave, simply choose the provenance "Other" and then "Not available", and 0 for the number of seedlings to "get out of the loop" and be able to finish the form.

Note that many Fagus gardens have 21 or less families. In these cases, the form will not ask you to give the number of families, but simply take you though all of them by default! In contrast, most Abies gardens have around 150 families, so here you will have to submit 7-8 forms.

How many seedlings do I have to observe?

For this fall monitoring, we are asking to please count all seedlings occuring in two random quarters of your Abies garden (see image on the right), and to count all Fagus seedlings in one family row. Given the low germination rate of most Fagus families this should be feasible to do. As before, the random quarters will be automatically selected for you in the form.

Tip: use sticks with appropriate half/quarter marks as needed to split the space to 4 equal parts.

What do I have to observe? Required and optional questions

Some of the questions are required and some are optional. The required questions are the date, the observer's name, the garden ID, the number of families to be observed, the provenance, the family, and the number of seedlings in one quarter. All other questions are optional. Hint: If you can pass on to the next question without an answer, it means that question was not required. This will allow you to adapt the work load according to your capacity. For example, if it is beyond your capacity to estimate the % of seedlings in the different developmental stages, you can leave these questions unanswered. Or, it is also sufficient to record the coordinates of the nursery once, for example, in the first form that you fill in for the first 20 families. Nevertheless, recording the coordinates in multiple forms will improve the precision. The form will also ask you to take a picture of the seedlings for each family (all 4 quarters together). You may or may not do this for all families, however, we encourage you to take a picture of each family as we maybe able to extract other information from these pictures later on.

When should I make the observations?

You can conduct your survival and height data collection anytime during September and October. However, for the senecense of Fagus we ask you to start the third week of September, since in some places Fagus leaves already started to turn yellow and conduct one observation per week until all seedlings turned brown. For survival and height, we ask you to make one observation but you can make more than one observations on your full garden if you have such capacity. The more data the better, of course.

Are the forms available in other languages than English?

We did not translate the current forms. However, please contact us if you need a complete translation because your technicians or students would be more comfortable with a fully translated version.

Where is my data?

The observations are stored on our ONA servers and are accessible to all macro-garden participants, but not for third parties. Please create an ONA account so you can be added to the project website: https://ona.io/mygardenoftrees/231749

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