Connecting science and citizens via R shiny apps – an interactive online toolbox for phenological observations

Real-time on-site observations are the fundamentals for studies of climate change, especially in phenology. The online environmental data collection and analysis platform BAYSICS has been developed for Bavaria, Germany, in order to assist and promote essential climatic related research to citizen scientists. In this study, we focus on presenting a novel aspect from such an integrated network – using interactive web applications to guide citizen scientists through applied climate change topics, and further develop their very own research questions which could be answered with the assistance of shiny apps. The following implemented shiny apps will be introduced in detail: Green Warming Stripes – a simple and direct visualization in coloured stripes showing the effects of climate change on the seasonal development of plants; PhenoInterpol – a map tool to visualize the phenological interpolated map in Bavaria as well as to perform phenological long-term trend analyses as a citizen scientist combining historical and his/her own observations; TECCS – an easy-to-use simulation tool for investigating the possible effects of winter and/or spring warming on bud break. More functionalities have been planned with the aim of building better connections between the scientific community and citizen society. In such a way we believe that not only data-based scientific research can be improved (database, models, and more) but also educational efforts based on “inquiry-based learning” related to climate change can be achieved.