Tracking Phenological Status and Ecological Interactions in a Hawaiian Cloud Forest Understory using Low-Cost Camera Traps and Visual Foundation Models

ArXi:2603.07817v1 Announce Type: new Plant phenology, the study of cyclical events such as leafing out, flowering, or fruiting, has wide ecological impacts but is broadly understudied, especially in the tropics. Image analysis has greatly enhanced remote phenological monitoring, yet capturing phenology at the individual level remains challenging. In this project, we deployed low-cost, animal-triggered camera traps at the Pu'u Maka'ala Natural Area Reserve in Hawaii to simultaneously document shifts in plant phenology and flora-faunal interactions.