cherry blossoms

Mason Pond’s first weather station is the canary in the coal mine

Rena Malai — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 17:46:50 +0000

Mason Pond’s first weather station is the canary in the coal mine Rena Malai Fri, 03/31/2023 - 13:46

In This Story

Just like miners used to bring canaries with them deep underground to detect danger early on, cherry trees – like the ones at ��AV’s Fairfax campus – offer a similar advanced warning when it comes to the atmosphere.

Bloom date records of cherry trees go back over a thousand years, with the earliest recordings linked to ancient cherry blossom festivals in Japan. More recently, bloom dates have taken on another purpose. Because of their temperature sensitivity, cherry trees’ flowering times have been noted as good indicators of a changing climate.

Biostatistics graduate student Jamie C. Roth.
Photo courtesy of Roth.

Biostatistics graduate student Jamie C. Roth wanted to apply this rich knowledge to the cherry trees that surround Mason Pond. She spearheaded a project to have the first weather station installed near the pond, which will monitor the atmosphere around the cherry trees and produce helpful data.

“The cherry blossoms show climate change better than any other plant,” said Roth. “I wanted to look at our own cherry trees and raise awareness of climate change.”

The weather station will be a permanent fixture and will measure components like sunlight, temperature, rainfall, humidity, and wind speed and direction. The data is then transmitted to a tablet that is currently housed in the Statistics department.

Although the team is working out the initial quirks of getting the system up and running, in time, Roth sees the weather station as a useful climate reporting tool for students to use in years to come.

“I’m excited for the future and to see how students get involved in climate change on campus,” said Roth.

Department of Statistics Assistant Professors David Kepplinger and Jonathan Auerbach supervised the project, along with College of Science Assistant Professor Daniel Hanley, in biology. Sarah D'Alexander from University Sustainability and Nick Valadez from the facilities department were instrumental in getting the weather station installed and running.

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In the Pink: Mason’s Cherry Tree Grove turns 30

Colleen Rich — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 17:09:47 +0000

In the Pink: Mason’s Cherry Tree Grove turns 30 Colleen Rich Wed, 03/29/2023 - 13:09

Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

��AV’s iconic cherry tree grove by Mason Pond turns 30 this year.

Officially known as the Memorial Cherry Grove, the first trees were donated in 1993 by the members of Club Nippon, a student organization for those who shared an interest in Japanese language and culture. The students, who wanted to do something different for Mason’s annual International Week, decided to make an enduring contribution to the Fairfax Campus by giving living symbols of Eastern Asia—cherry trees.

More than 30 trees were purchased from Merrifield Garden Center, according to a 1993 news report. Other international student organizations and several campus offices contributed to the purchase. The students planted one of these trees by the pond and Cross Cottage during International Week, while the Facilities Planning Office integrated the others into long-range plans for the area.

The Memorial Cherry Grove has grown from the original 30 trees to now 61. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

The collection has grown from the original 30 to now 61 specimens. Dogwood and other hardwood trees indigenous to Virginia were added to the grove later, as well as several trees donated in memory of loved ones.

Mason certified arborist Erich Miller, the grounds program manager for Mason’s Facilities Management department, identifies the trees in the grove as Yoshino (Prunus x yedoensis) cherry trees, and says the grove gets a lot of interest this time of year.

“It has been cultivated and expanded to mirror the fantastic floral show that's currently happening at the Tidal Basin downtown,” said Miller, who has worked at Mason for 17 years. “We are fortunate enough to be here in Fairfax and enjoying the same type of show.”

Miller also welcomes the cherry blossom attention because it helps raise awareness about Mason’s Arboretum. In 2021, the university earned Level II accreditation from the international accreditation program ArbNet.

While many universities set aside a certain number of acres to dedicate to an arboretum, Mason did things differently and chose to make all of its campuses and locations, including the Point of View International Retreat and Conference Center and the Potomac Science Center in Woodbridge, Virginia, part of its collection.

The cherry trees are part of Mason's accredited Arboretum. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

Being a Level II Arboretum means the university is identifying and showcasing a collection of more than 100 native and non-native trees and shrubs in these spaces. Visitors can enjoy the Arboretum in person or online using the interactive Arboretum map, which showcases each specimen.

As the university’s arborist, Miller is responsible for the continued health and vitality of Mason’s trees. And when one goes away—whether because of illness or construction, it is replaced. In many instances, it is replaced with the same type of tree or another Virginia native species. If the new tree isn’t planted in the same spot, know that it lives in another spot in the Arboretum.

“It’s my responsibility to make sure that the current footprint stays in place or is improved,” he said.

Fun fact: There is a master tree list where Miller said they document as best they can every tree within the university canopy. That’s a lot of acres and a lot of trees.

Although areas like the Memorial Cherry Grove provide a beautiful spot for a picnic, a marriage proposal, or just a relaxing place to study, the true purpose of an arboretum is education. Mason’s Memorial Cherry Grove has also come to be used as one of the Institute for a Sustainable Earth’s Living Labs.

Not only have faculty members in Mason’s Department of Statistics been holding a yearly international Cherry Blossom Prediction Competition, Mason statistics students have been collecting and analyzing data on the bloom date of the cherry trees at Mason Pond and integrating this information with Mason’s local meteorological data, tracking variations over time to build a more accurate model for the bloom date.

“Part of the decision-making process for categorizing the entire university as the Arboretum is that we're a public university. People are welcome to come here and visit any time,” said Miller. “It's a learning opportunity for not only the students, but for anybody who visits here.”

Learn more about Mason's Arboretum

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Budding scientist monitors Mason’s iconic cherry blossoms

Colleen Rich — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 17:39:03 +0000

Budding scientist monitors Mason’s iconic cherry blossoms Colleen Rich Mon, 03/27/2023 - 13:39

In This Story

David Kepplinger

Jonathan L. Auerbach

Over the last year, ��AV graduate student Jamie Roth has been leading an interdisciplinary research project alongside faculty members in biology and statistics.

Mason's cherry blossom monitoring team (from left) includes Jonathan Auerbach, Jamie Roth, David Kepplinger, and Daniel Hanley. Photo by Genamarie McCant/Mason Facilities

Roth designed this project as a long-term opportunity to teach Mason students to collect, process, analyze, and communicate about data using resources available on campus. The long-term data will reflect how Mason’s local ecosystem responds to the effects of climate change and create a visible marker for an otherwise invisible impact.

By having Mason statistics students collect and analyze data on the bloom date of the cherry blossom trees at Mason Pond, as a part of their coursework in STAT 490 Capstone in Statistics and STAT 634 Case Studies in Data Analysis, and integrating it with Mason’s local meteorological data, variations can be tracked over time to build a more accurate model for the bloom date of the cherry blossom trees at Mason.

To implement this project, Roth received funding from Office of University Sustainability’s Patriot Green Fund, a grant from Mason Facilities that allows the campus community to develop infrastructure solutions that reduce Mason’s environmental impact as well as support student research projects that explore sustainability topics in the region.

Trail cameras and a weather station monitor the campus cherry blossoms over time. Photo by Genamarie McCant/Mason Facilities

With this support, the project team, which includes faculty members Jonathan Auerbach and David Kepplinger in the Department of Statistics and Daniel Hanley in the Biology Department, worked collaboratively with Mason Facilities Project Manager Nick Valadez to determine the best locations to mount trail cameras and a weather station in order to monitor the cherry blossoms over time. This was key to the project because even a minor variation in the microclimate can affect phenological events, like bloom times. Once that information was determined, Abu Monjer, a project manager in Facilities Management, supported the installations in time for the project to launch for this year’s blooms.

“This project has been a great opportunity for me to tie together local climate data to the flora on the Mason [Fairfax] Campus and hopefully lay groundwork for future environmental projects,” said Roth, who is majoring in biostatistics.

This research builds on the international Cherry Blossom Prediction Competition, which Auerbach and Kepplinger help organize. This competition assembles data on the peak bloom date of cherry trees all over the world, from Kyoto, Japan, to Vancouver, British Columbia, and this project will bring Mason into this global arena, ensuring our ecosystem is represented.

This initiative is a pilot project for the Institute for a Sustainable Earth’s Mason Living Labs Initiative, which is designed to encourage and support students, faculty, and staff to pose questions, experiment, gather data, monitor changes, and propose novel solutions to a range of sustainability challenges associated with the university’s campus environments and its socio-environmental systems. Learn more about the Living Labs initiative and the Cherry Blossom Monitoring project during the virtual event launch on April 12, 2023, at 2 p.m.

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cherry blossoms

Research

Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE)

Facilities

Sustainability

Mason Living Labs Initiative

CEC faculty research

Early spring toys with second annual Cherry Blossom Prediction  Competition

Rena Malai — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 15:54:53 +0000

Early spring toys with second annual Cherry Blossom Prediction  Competition   Rena Malai Thu, 03/09/2023 - 10:54

In This Story

David Kepplinger

Unseasonably warm temperatures in the Northern Virginia area this spring have turned blooming dates upside down, and the beloved cherry blossoms are no exception. 

Last year, students at ��AV joined contestants from around the world to predict the peak bloom date of cherry trees at four global locations—Washington, D.C.; Kyoto, Japan; Liestal-Weideli, Switzerland; and Vancouver, BC, Canada. The international Cherry Blossom Prediction Competition was a huge success and is gaining traction during its second annual run. 

The competition is organized by Mason statistics professors Jonathan Auerbach and David Kepplinger, and Elizabeth Wolkovich from the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia.  

“We’re interested to see how the competition plays out this year,” Kepplinger says. “It’s a great way for our students to get involved in something that’s so interesting to many people. Who doesn’t love the cherry blossoms?” 

Because of the warm temperatures this year, contestants predict the Washington cherry trees will reach peak bloom on March 28 on average, a week earlier than the historic average.

“If you have warm temperatures followed by a cold blast, it can really affect the bloom date,” Auerbach says. “Usually in the D.C. area, peak bloom occurs in early April. But some trees in the Tidal Basin and here at Mason Pond already show signs that flowering is imminent so we’ll have to see.” 

Mason statistics students Sara Alhassani and D.J. Grant provided the closest predictions last year, and Auerbach sees many competitive entries from Mason students again this year. Contestants use a variety of measures like examining weather patterns, soil moisture, past bloom rates, and area rainfall to get the best estimate of peak bloom dates.   

The 2022 peak bloom date in Washington was March 21, and the earliest peak bloom date on record is March 15, 1990.

Competition winners will be announced in May and are eligible for up to $5,000 in cash and prizes.