Studying spatiotemporal phenology in Wadden Sea using a digital twin approach

Phenology, the study of the timing of recurring biological phases, exhibits significant variability across temporal and spatial dimensions due to its strong dependence on weather variability. Consequently, phenological processes are often regarded as sentinels for climate change impacts. Coastal ecosystems are at the frontline of sea level rise and other climate change pressures. Understanding variability of phenological processes within these ecosystems is crucial for assessing the climate change impacts. Identifying phenoregions (regions with similar phenology) can aid governments in effective management and planning. The European Long Term Ecological Research (eLTER) network provides a platform for collecting long-term field measurements across various EU countries, which are essential for identifying temporal dynamic patterns. A major challenge in phenological modeling is the computational intensity and large data size when working at extensive spatial scales and with high-resolution temporal and spatial grids of explanatory variables (e.g. weather and remotely sensed data). Emerging digital research infrastructures, such as LTER-LIFE, show potential in addressing these computationally intensive tasks. Workflows can be constructed in a cloud-based platform that surpass local computer capacities, and approaches such as parallelization can speed up the computation process. A scientific use case will illustrate how this infrastructure enhances the processing of remote sensing data to study of temporal and spatial dynamics of primary productivity within Wadden Sea. By presenting our ideas and first results, we invite ecologists associated with eLTER sites to utilize the eLTER Science Conference in Finland to kickoff a joint determination of the climate-driven spatial and temporal variability of phenoregions.