The scene starts with an overcast October day and shuffles through nearly a year of photos showing Put-in-Bay Harbor and Gibraltar Island, flashing postcard-worthy sunsets, fall colors and the frozen bay on chilly winter days.
South Bass Island visitors and residents snapped photos with their smartphones for the past 11 months from the same spot outside
Ohio State University’s Stone Lab offices at Put-in-Bay, facing the lab’s headquarters on
Gibraltar Island.
These images have been turned into
a video that can be watched, showing a time-lapse of the changing of seasons at Put-in-Bay Harbor and Gibraltar since October 2023. All of this was done through a
Chronolog, a mounted smart-phone holder that lets anyone with a phone take a photo and submit it.
“One of our missions is to provide outreach to the community regarding the Lake Erie environment and how it can change over time,” says Brian Alford, Ph.D. and assistant director of Stone Lab. “Community science projects like Chronolog allow us to have the public engage in information collection about how Lake Erie can change at specific locations due to weather like ice cover and seiches, harmful algal blooms, fishing pressure, and recreational boating in a part of Lake Erie that sees a great amount of economic benefits.”
This Chronolog is a partnership between
Shores & Islands Ohio and Stone Lab. Shores & Islands has nine active Chronologs and four available to its partners, says Nichole Wade, Shores and Islands Ohio assistant experience destination director.
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Chronolog websiteChronolog is a mounted smart-phone holder that lets anyone with a phone take a photo and submit it.“For the visitors, we want them to be able to jump on and see these areas,” she says. “But also for the partners, they can see water levels rise and lower and other things that they can monitor as well. It’s a dual partnership and relationship there.”
Chronolog is a company that helps citizens become part of monitoring their environment. It works through organizers, such as Shores & Islands, to provide the holders, which partners bolt onto things like tree stumps or poles. Visitors then take the photos and email them directly to Chronolog, which compiles them into viewable time lapses.
“Chronolog’s mission is twofold: First, to engage people with nature in an interactive new way,” according to the Chronolog website. “Second, to keep a record of phenological change for scientific use. By making environmental conservation a collaborative activity, people become interested in participating and compelled by the findings.”
Parks, nature centers, wildlife organizations, schools and museums are among the 300 organizations that use Chronologs. There are more than 100,000 contributors
across the world, although most are in the United States.
“I can look at
Hawaii right now if I want to,” Wade says.
Through Shores & Islands Ohio, Chronologs are located at multiple spots on
Kelleys and
South Bass islands,
Wyandot Wetland Meadows Preserve Barnes Addition in Huron, and
Edison Woods Metropark in Berlin Heights. The project started in 2020 but stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic and picked up again in 2023, Wade says.
So far, people have enjoyed watching the changing seasons from the different locations and the activity in the
Kelleys Island pollinator field. As reporting continues in future years, the Chronologs can help with environmental changes, such as changing landscapes.
“Last year, when there were high winds and tornado activity, we were able to monitor some trees that fell,” she says. “That was interesting to see the difference in that.”
Four Chronologs are still available to Shores & Islands partners. Partners pay a yearly maintenance fee, and Shore and Islands provides the Chronolog brackets and sign.
Wade is the contact, and she can be reached at
[email protected] or 419-624-6951.