We were approached by David Gardner (Chairman
Kent Butterfly Conservation
) who was interested in developing the graphing facilities in AditSite to display annual (or seasonal) sightings for single species by day, both to demonstrate changes in phenology, and to help them assess the quality of their recorded data.
David was also keen to be able to maniplate and compare data to support current and future research.
Most of the infrastructure to support the graphing was present, and the only real innovation (David's idea) was allowing the user to move quickly between different species for a chosen time period, or different time periods for a chosen species.
The following screen shot gives you the basic idea
(please note, data is entirely ficticious)
This list (top right) displays the dates on which data was recorded. Clicking on a date displays the detail, and gives access to the underlying record card.
Of course, once you give a user exactly what they want, they immediately come up with an enhancement. Would it be possible to distinguish between sightings of the same species at different stages of their life cycle?
Simple enough, use a user-defined field to record the stage, and nominate this field as the 'Map Symbol / Stage' field (mapping can then use different symbols for each stage, and graphing produce a keyed chart).
If you are interested in Phenology you could visit the The UK Phenology Network
The BBC is running a Phenology project called Springwatch