Bio-calendar
BIRD: linking the biodiversity community
Categories: Resources | Bio-calendar
Bio-calendar is a resource that can assist in recognising natural biological processes that plants and animals undergo in response to seasonal variations in the environment.
Bio-calendar recognises six seasons which attempts to reflect seasonal variations that are more in alignment with natural biological events relevant to south-west Victoria, Australia, rather than the fixed three monthly four seasons of the European calendar.
Helping to re-connect with nature In our day-today life in the 21st Century we have become increasingly partitioned from the events in the natural world. Many people find themselves living in a human created world of technology, concrete and glass. Whether living in the city, town or rural areas most people don’t have either the time or awareness to realise that there is another whole world of biodiversity with which we share our existence. Bio-calendar can help us to keep in tune with the myriad of biological changes that native plants and animals undergo throughout the year. Animals migrating, breeding and feeding; plants germinating, flowering and seeding all according to stimulus from seasonal variations of sunlight, temperature and rainfall. By increasing our consciousness about some of the phenomena taking place in the natural world we may take a step closer to reconnect with nature and be in a better position to appreciate the plight of our threatened species and assist in protecting them.
The concept of six or more seasons has been recognised by indigenous people of southern Australia as they lived according to natural seasonal variations in plants, animals and habitats. In south-west Victoria, the indigenous Brambuk calendar recognises six seasons that reflect changes in temperature, rainfall and availability of plant and animal food resources in the Gariwerd (Grampians) area . Six and seven season calendars have also been devised for areas near Melbourne by indigenous people and more contempory naturalists. These calendars attempt to recognise that seasonal changes to plants, animals and their habitats don’t necessarily fit the four seasons that we are accustom to and that there are alternative ways of recognising seasonal changes to our climate and biodiversity. The six seasons used in Bio-calendar are based on a combination of a number of calendars in order to take account of the wide climatic variation across south-west Victoria.
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