As climate change continues to dominate the international environmental agenda, phenology the study of the timing of recurring biological events has received increasing research attention, leading to an emerging consensus that phenology can be viewed as an early warning system for climate change impact.

A multidisciplinary science involving many branches of ecology, geography and remote sensing, phenology to date has lacked a coherent methodological text. This new synthesis, including contributions from many of the world s leading phenologists, therefore fills a critical gap in the...