Monthly Highlights

• 2008|October |September |August |July | June | May | April | March | February | January
• 2007 December| November | October |September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January
• 2006 December | November |October | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January
• 2005 December| November | October | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January
• 2004 December | November | October | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January
• 2003 December | November | October | September | August | July | June

October 2008 Highlights

Fall Foliage - Climate Change

In the October issue of National Geographic magazine, the leaf pigmentation work of former Bullard Fellow David Lee and the fall phenology observations of Museum Coordinator and ecologist John O'Keefe are highlighted in a brief piece on fall color. You can view today's fall foliage color at Harvard Forest at the webcam view of Prospect Hill. View a sequence of images tracking color change to date through this season. You can also see the fall foliage season unfold in previous years as shown from the pasture near the Harvard Forest headquarters. Learn more about the science behind leaf color change at a site developed by David Lee.

Acting Locally - A Working Model

David Foster, Director of Harvard Forest and Bill Labich, Regional Conservationist of Highstead lay out the arguments and successes of creating a working model to think globally while acting locally. For New England and most of the eastern United States, there is a direct link between effective forest protection and management and the global environment. As a consequence of sub-continental reforestation and growth since the 19th Century, residents across this region have a second chance to determine the fate of their natural landscape. The forests that blanket this region are young and growing rapidly, storing globally important amounts of carbon and thereby thwarting global climate change. Protecting these forests and managing them to produce products and store additional carbon will bring immense benefits to local communities and the world. The Wildlands and Woodlands proposal to protect and manage 50% of southern New England in forests provides a mechanism for achieving such ambitious local and global goals. See the entire chapter below.

Foster, D.R. and W. Labich. 2008. A Wildland and Woodland Vision for the New England Landscape: Local Conservation, Biodiversity and the Global Environment. Pp 155-175. In R.A. Askins et al. (eds.), Saving Biological Diversity. Springer.

Harvard Forest Featured in Gazette

Harvard University's Gazette featured the Harvard Forest in its September, 25th edition. The article highlights Harvard Forest's vast history, landscape, research history and current and future endeavors. Read the article on-line, view it as a PDF or pick up a copy to see the accompanying photographs.

Recent Students Publications

Coastal Ecology

Busby, P.E., G. Motzkin, and D.R. Foster. 2008. Multiple and interacting disturbances lead to Fagus grandifolia dominance in coastal New England. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 135(3), pp. 346–359.

Bob Marshall and Harvard Forest Ecology

Ireland, A.W., B.J. Mew, and D.R. Foster. 2008. Bob Marshall’s forest reconstruction study: three centuries of ecological resilience to disturbance. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 135(3), pp. 411–422.

September 2008 Highlights

Talk and Book Signing with Dr. Eric Chivian - September 19th

You are invited to special talk and book signing with Dr. Eric Chivian, Director of Harvard University Center for Health and the Global Environment.
Talk: Sustaining Life: How Human Health
Depends on Biodiversity
Location: Fisher Museum, Harvard Forest, 324 North Main Street. Petersham, Massachusetts 01366
Time: 7:00 p.m. Friday, September 19th All Welcome! Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served at 6:30 p.m.

Harvard Forest Artist in Residence

Debby Cotter Kaspari

These works were created on location in Harvard Forest, Petersham, MA, by Debby Kaspari, Artist-in Residence in spring and summer of 2008. During five months of drawing and painting from life in the woods Kaspari recorded natural forms, seasonal changes, birds and animals in mixed media on paper. These artworks were begun plein air and finished in-studio at Benson House. Kaspari was inspired by Harvard Forest's natural elements as well as slab quarries, old foundations and other historical artifacts scattered around the forest. "I concentrated on intimate scenes within the forest, and tried to show how the remains of earlier settlement eventually becomes part of the forest itself".

Read Debby's Bio and catch up on her current events through her blog.

Help Harvard Forest protect the Ernie Gould woodlot!

Harvard Forest still needs to raise $50,000 to cover costs associated with protecting the Ernie Gould woodlot with a conservation easement and then purchasing the property. Harvard Forest does not receive financial support fromHarvard University for this type of project.

The woodlot, owned and managed by forest economist Ernie Gould until his death in 1988, will become the focal area for the Gould Woodland Center for Conservation, a demonstration area for our Wildlands and Woodlands vision in action.

Donations toward the Gould Woodlot project can be sent to:
HARVARD FOREST
GOULD WOODLOT PROJECT
324 NORTH MAIN STREET
PETERSHAM, MA 01366

Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology Teacher, Katherine Bennett, wins New England Environmental Education Association Award

Kate has been actively leading her students in participating in a hands-on long term field ecology project monitoring the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid in a woodland near their school. This work is part of Harvard Forest’s Schoolyard Ecology program, Woolly Bully, which connects students with Forest Ecologist, David Orwig’s studies. Kate has also worked closely with Forest Ecologist, Aaron Ellison as a field research assistant. We are thrilled that she is being recognized for her amazing work in connecting students with the natural world using authentic scientific studies.

The Formal Environmental Educator Award is designed to recognize a public or private school classroom teacher who:

• promotes individual and societal environmental responsibility;
• encourages students to make informed decisions about environmental issues;
• inspires student involvement and action through individual or group projects to effect positive environmental change at school or within the local community;
• links student learning to the appropriate state or national science benchmarks, curriculum frameworks, or standards.

The award ceremony will be held at the NEEEA conference in Hancock, New Hampshire on October 5th.

New Publications

Eastern Hemlock: Irreplaceable Habitat

If you have ever ventured into the midst of an eastern hemlock-dominated forest, you may sense that you entered a special place. The stately, long-lived conifers with drooping, dark green branches aligned in a pyramidal shape, create an environment that is deeply shaded and cooler than surrounding woodlands. These conditions strongly influence wildlife and nearby streams. Harvard Forest Forest Ecologist, David Orwig discusses the importance and influence of the Eastern Hemlock in the Massachusett's Chapter of the Sierra Club newsletter.

Orwig, D.A., 2008. Eastern Hemlock: Irreplaceable Habitat. Sierran. pp. 3,5.

August 2008 Highlights

Scientist featured in Science Magazine

Harvard Forest Scientist Kristina Stinson recently talked with Science Magazine about her career path and her work on invasive plants at Harvard Forest. The profile was part of journalist Elisabeth Pain's series on forest ecology. Read the entire article

Climate Change: a Retrospective Look

The National Science Foundation has awarded $465,000 for a collaborative research project involving scientists from Harvard Forest, Emerson College, Brown University, and the University of Wyoming. The research will explore the potential for abrupt shifts in species abundances and assemblages to result from interactions between gradual, long-term changes in climate and episodic drought, fire, or human activities. The retrospective project involves the use of complementary approaches to reconstruct past climate-ecosystem dynamics. High-resolution analyses of lake-sediment records from southern New England will reveal past changes in climate, vegetation, and disturbance for the past 15,000 years, thus improving our knowledge of the mechanisms by which climate change interacts with environmental extremes and disturbance to control the pace and patterns of ecological change.

Harvard Forest on the Radio

Research by Harvard Forest Senior Ecologist Aaron Ellison on pitcher plants and nitrogen deposition ("acid rain") was featured on WFCR's weekly "Field Notes" column. Field Notes is produced by Laurie Sanders; WFCR is Western Massachusetts' NPR affiliate station. Listen to the interview.

New Publications

New Book Examines the History of Agriculture, Ecological Change and Conservation across the U.S.

The introduction, spread, and abandonment of agriculture represents the most pervasive alteration of the earth's environment in recorded history. This new volume edited by Charles Redman from Arizona State University and David Foster from Harvard Forest, draws on research at six U.S. Long-Term Ecological Research sites, to describe what happens when humans alter natural ecological regimes through agricultural practices. Although each research site has its own unique agricultural history, patterns emerge that help us understand the impact of our actions on the earth, and how the earth pushes back.

"The synthesis that emerges is a powerful example of the insights that come from interdisciplinary networks of scientists who share a long-term view. This is a compelling example of the value of long-term research in which scientists from disparate backgrounds come to brilliant insights through intellectual networks that develop over many years of shared work."

-STEPHEN R. CARPENTER, Stephen Alfred Forbes Professor, Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Learn more and/or purchase the book.

Structural Comparisons Among Old Growth and Second Growth Hemlock Forests

Old-growth forests are valuable sources of ecological, conservation, and management information, yet these ecosystems have received little study in New England, due in large part to their regional scarcity. To increase our understanding of the structures and processes common in these rare forests, former REU (2000) and Ph.D. student (2007) Tony D'Amato along with HF ecologists David Orwig and David Foster studied the abundance of downed coarse woody debris (CWD) and snags and live-tree size-class distributions in 16 old-growth hemlock forests in western Massachusetts. Old-growth stands were compared with eight adjacent second growth hemlock forests to gain a better understanding of the structural differences between these two classes of forests resulting from contrasting histories. The variation in structural attributes among old growth stands, particularly the abundance of downed CWD, was closely related to disturbance history. In particular, old-growth stands experiencing moderate levels of canopy disturbance during the last century (1930s and 1980s) had greater accumulations of CWD, highlighting the importance of gap-scale disturbances in shaping the long-term development and structural characteristics of old-growth forests. These findings are important for the development of natural disturbance-based silvicultural systems that may be used to restore important forest characteristics lacking in New England second-growth stands by integrating structural legacies of disturbance (e.g., downed CWD) and resultant tree-size distribution patterns. This silvicultural approach would emulate the often episodic nature of CWD recruitment within old-growth forests.

D'Amato, A. W., D. A. Orwig and D. R. Foster. 2008. The Influence of Successional Processes and Disturbance on the Structure of Tsuga Canadensis Forest. Ecological Applications, 18(5), pp. 1182-1199.

July 2008 Highlights

Harvard Forest Schoolyard Program Featured in the News

HF Ecologist,David Orwig's work with the Schoolyard Ecology project "Hemlock Trees and the Pesky Pest, the Woolly Adelgid" was featured on the front page of the Greenfield Recorder recently. See the article about Greenfield High School students and teacher Christine Perham's experience in doing ecological field research in Greenfield.

Harvard Forest Receives Safe Drinking Water Award

Harvard Forest recently was awarded the Massachusetts Public Drinking Water Award, which recognizes public water systems for outstanding performance. In a ceremony at the State House, MassDEP Commissioner Laurie Burt presented the award to Michael Scott, Edythe Ellin, and Ronald May. Winning systems were determined based on their compliance with state drinking water regulations. The 32 award winners (out of 1,736 systems state-wide) had no monitoring enforcements or violations, submitted all required reports on time, adhered to good water management procedures and have excellent source protection standards.

New Publications

New Book Examines the History of Agriculture, Ecological Change and Conservation across the U.S.

The introduction, spread, and abandonment of agriculture represents the most pervasive alteration of the earth's environment in recorded history. This new volume edited by Charles Redman from Arizona State University and David Foster from Harvard Forest, draws on research at six U.S. Long-Term Ecological Research sites, to describe what happens when humans alter natural ecological regimes through agricultural practices. Although each research site has its own unique agricultural history, patterns emerge that help us understand the impact of our actions on the earth, and how the earth pushes back.

"The synthesis that emerges is a powerful example of the insights that come from interdisciplinary networks of scientists who share a long-term view. This is a compelling example of the value of long-term research in which scientists from disparate backgrounds come to brilliant insights through intellectual networks that develop over many years of shared work."

-STEPHEN R. CARPENTER, Stephen Alfred Forbes Professor, Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Learn more and/or purchase the book.

Invasive Plant Studies

Previous work at the Harvard Forest has shown that mycorrhizal fungi of herbaceous plants are inhibited by the invasion of garlic mustard. In this paper, researchers at the Harvard Forest, the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, and at Boston University demonstrate that ectomycorrhizal fungal communities in conifer dominated forests are also inhibited by the invasion of garlic mustard in multiple forest types throughout New England. The decline of ectomycorrhizal fungi due to garlic mustard invasion may have implications for tree seedling establishment and biogeochemical cycling in forest soils.

Wolfe, B.E., V.L. Rodgers, K.A. Stinson and A. Pringle. 2008. The invasive plant Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) inhibits ectomycorrhizal fungi in its introduced range. Journal of Ecology 96: 777-783.

The Effect of Logging in Western Massachusetts

Forest harvesting is one of the most significant disturbances affecting forest plant composition and structure in eastern North American forests, yet few studies have quantified the landscape-scale effects of widespread, low-intensity harvests by non-industrial private forest owners. Using spatially explicit data on all harvests over the last 20 years, we sampled the vegetation at 126 sites throughout central and western Massachusetts, one-third of which had not been harvested, and two-thirds of which had been harvested once since 1984. Seedling and sapling densities increased with increasing harvest intensity, but decreased to levels similar to unharvested sites by year 20 for all but the most intensive harvests. The composition of understory trees appears to be only slightly changed by harvesting, and was strongly correlated with adult tree composition. Overall, the compositional impacts of harvesting were minor, perhaps because of the low-intensity of harvesting. However, our results support observations from elsewhere in the northeastern U.S. of limited oak regeneration on both harvested and unharvested sites. In addition, our results suggest that increased harvest intensity may be expected to alter forest composition, particularly on rich sites where invasive species may increase as a result of harvesting.

McDonald, R.I., G. Motzkin, D.R. Foster. 2008. The effect of logging on vegetation composition in Western Massachusetts. Forest Ecology and Management 255: 4021–4031.

June 2008 Highlights

Interns Arrive for Summer Program in Ecology

Twenty-three summer students have arrived as part of the Harvard Forest summer research program in ecology. Students come from all over the United States to participate in on-going research projects investigating atmospheric pollution, global warming, invasive plants, watershed ecology, and insect outbreaks. Researchers come from many disciplines and institutions. Specific projects center on population and community ecology, plant physiology, insect ecology, land-use history, aquatic ecology, biogeochemistry, and atmosphere-biosphere exchanges.

Harvard Forest On The Air

Schoolyard Ecology Program Honored

The Schoolyard Ecology program at Harvard Forest was featured on WBZ-TV in Boston and 3 of our Schoolyard Ecology teachers were honored at the State House for Excellence in Environmental Education. Tewksbury High School teacher,Elaine Senechal and her students along with Harvard Forest Ecologist John O'Keefe made an appearance on WBZ-TV with reporter Mish Michaels. See the clip.

The Boston Globe covered the story of teachers being honored for Excellence in Environmental Education at State House. Teachers and students from West Springfield, Amherst and Athol were awarded. Harvard Forest participants were the first 2 awardees listed and the West Springfield award. View the story.

Tropical Coastal Research at Harvard Forest

Harvard Forest has been fortunate to be one of the world's centers for research in the ecology of tropical coastal forests. Professor Emeritus Barry Tomlinson wrote the book on mangroves (The Botany of Mangroves, published in 1986 by Cambridge University Press). Recent Bullard Fellow Elizabeth Farnsworth and Harvard Forest Senior Ecologist Aaron Ellison have collaborated on mangrove research since the mid-1980s. Just over 3 years after the Asian Tsunami raised global awareness about the importance of mangroves for coastal protection, mangroves are in the news again. Coastal areas of Myanmar (the country formerly known as Burma) from which mangroves have been cut extensively appeared to have suffered far more damage from Cyclone Nargis on May 2, 2008. Ellison was interviewed about the relationship between mangroves and coastal protection on Here and Now. Listen to the 8-minute interview

Harvard Undergraduate Thesis on Garlic Mustard, an Invasive Plant

Dunbar Nathan Carpenter '08 completed his Senior Thesis in Biology (OEB) "Regional and Historical Influences on Exotic Plant Invasions - The Ecological Drivers of Garlic Mustrard (Alliaria petiolata) Invasion in Western Massachusetts". This work draws upon research initiated in the Harvard Forest Summer Program investigating the ecological and historical factors driving the distribution of garlic mustard, a highly invasive plant. Dunbar completed his analyses and writing with oversight from Kathleen Donohue, Kristina Stinson, Missy Holbrook and David Foster while enrolled in the ecology research seminar OEB 198. The data show a higher occurrence of garlic mustard in the Berkshire Valley than in the Connecticut River Valley that is most likely related to the history of invasion rather than climate or environmental differences between the regions. Different factors appeared to influence the plant’s establishment at open sites, its invasion into adjacent forests, and its abundance in the understory. These findings broadly suggest that history and geography, in addition to environment, are important to consider in interpreting or anticipating plant invasions at the regional scale. Dunbar has also contributed to recommendations for invasive species control at the Harvard Forest.

New Harvard Forest Publications

In April's Ecology, former research assistant Jess Butler and her co-authors Nick Gotelli (University of Vermont) and Aaron Ellison (Harvard Forest Senior Ecologist) reported the surprising finding that the complex food web of macroinvertebrates inhabiting leaves of the pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea contribute little to the nutrient budget of this carnivorous plant. Rather, bacteria provide the key link between the detritus-based ("brown") food web living in the pitchers and the producer-based ("green") food web that depends on the plant for food. In a follow-up publication to appear in Environmental Microbiology, Harvard post-doc Celeste Peterson and a group of co-authors from Harvard's Departments of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology and Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Harvard Forest, and Howard University describe the diversity of these bacteria in three bogs in Massachusetts. Peterson et al. show that the presence of the top predator in the pitcher plant's brown food web, larvae of the mosquito Wyeomyia smithii increases bacterial species richness in the pitchers. So although the food web may not directly provide nitrogen to the plant, the food web does control the diversity of the species that do provide that nitrogen.

Butler, J. L., N. J. Gotelli, and Ellison, A. M. 2008. Linking the brown and green: nutrient transformation and fate in the Sarracenia microecosystem. Ecology 89: 898-904.

Peterson, C. N., S. Day, B. E. Wolfe, A. M. Ellison, R. Kolter, and A. Pringle. 2008. A keystone predator controls bacterial diversity in the pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) microecosystem. Environmental Microbiology (in press)

May 2008 Highlights

Harvard Forest Forest Canopy Camera Installed

In April Harvard Forest's webcam went online, thanks to a grant to our collaborator, Andrew Richardson, at the University of New Hampshire. The camera, which is mounted at the top of the Environmental Measurement Station (EMS) deep in our Prospect Hill tract, records an image every 15 minutes. The view looks north from the EMS toward Prospect Hill and the fire tower at the top of Propect Hill can easily be seen. The webcam images will be used to track tree phenology, leaf emergence and development (greenup) in the spring and leaf color and drop in the fall. These data will fill a gap between individual tree observations made from the ground and satellite observations that integrate over a large area and can only be made when the sky is not cloudy. The timing of these events, which are sensitive to climate change, determines the length of the growing season and hence influences carbon exchange, which is being measured at the EMS.

2008-2009 Bullard Fellow Recipients Announced

The Charles Bullard fellowship program is to support advanced research and study by individuals who show promise of making an important contribution, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry and forest-related subjects from biology to earth sciences, economics, politics, administration or law. See the complete listing of Bullard Scholars from 1962 - 2008

Bryant Farm

Harvard Forest recently purchased the farm house, 3 outbuildings and about 8 acres of land from the estate of Richard Bryant, a long time friend of the Harvard Forest. The house is a beautiful ca. 1840 vintage historic cape, with slate roof, barn, garage and other outbuildings. Over time, the goal is to reopen up the adjacent pastures to allow small scale farming to return to this historic homestead.

Forest Publications

Impact of Climate Change on Terrestrial Over-Wintering Birds

Romemary Balfour completed her Master of Liberal Arts at the Harvard Extension School with the thesis "The Impact of Changes in Average Winter Temperatures and Habitat Modification on Populations of Terrestrial Birds Over-wintering in Inland Areas of Massachusetts". David Foster, Director of Harvard Forest, served as a member on her thesis committee.

This study investigates the impact of the increasing average winter temperatures and habitat modification on winter populations of terrestrial birds in Massachusetts, based on Christmas Bird Count (CBC) data recorded annually by volunteers for the National Audubon Society. The large archival database of records for birds' species in their winter range was used to examine whether bird species are extending their winter ranges into more northerly regions. The ratio of southern to northern for bird populations in eight CBC across within four ecologically diverse regions of Massachusetts were shown to have increased significantly from the winter of 1980/1 to 2004/5, but there was a weak correlation when the ratios were compared to average winter temperatures. Examination of the changes in land-use in the CBC areas, over the same time period showed a correlation with the area of residential use, and the length of edge between forested and developed areas, which is increasing as a result of forest fragmentation. Separation of the bird species into habitat preferences of edge, woods, and grassland, showed a preferential distribution of birds in the edge habitat. Additionally, analysis of the feeding preferences of the bird species showed a predominance of seed-eating birds. Examination of individual species that use bird feeders as a supplementary winter food resource showed they are increasing in abundance and/or expanding their winter ranges. The increasing popularity of feeding wild birds may be improving the winter survival of some species at the expense of species diversity. The results suggest that the increasing numbers of winter populations of southern species in Massachusetts are occurring in response to a complex interaction of factors that include climate change, habitat modification, and supplementary winter food resources.

Ecosystem Response to Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Infestation

Forest ecologist David Orwig, along with several former and current Harvard Forest collaborators, examined the magnitude of ecosystem response associated with 3 years of hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) infestation in southern New England hemlock forests. The study, published in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research, shows that infested forests had significantly higher HWA-induced foliar loss and significantly lower forest floor C:N ratios and percent soil organic matter than uninfested forests. There were no significant soil temperature differences among stand types, although infested stands did have lower forest floor moisture and higher mineral soil moisture than uninfested stands. Net-nitrogen (N) mineralization and net nitrification rates did not differ between stand types, although net nitrification rates were an order of magnitude higher in infested versus uninfested forests by the third year of this study. In addition, total N pools and NH4 and NO3 captured on resin bags were significantly higher in infested versus uninfested forests throughout this study. These increases in N were likely due to a combination of factors including enhanced decomposition, reduced uptake of both water and nitrogen by declining trees, the absence of understory vegetation, and N-enriched throughfall from infested canopies. These results confirm that invasive pests can initiate substantial changes in ecosystem function soon after infestation occurs, and prior to substantial overstory mortality or understory re-organization.

Orwig, D.A., R.C. Cobb, A.W. D'Amato, M.L. Kizlinzki and D.R. Foster. 2008. Multi-year ecosystem response to hemlock woolly adelgid infestation in southern New England forest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 38: 834-843.

April 2008 Highlights

Harvard Forest Biodiversity Studies: The Vascular Flora

Jerry Jenkins, former Bullard Fellow and researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society, Glenn Motzkin, ecologist at Harvard Forest, and Kirsten Ward, a former summer student at the Harvard Forest, have completed a study of the vascular plants of the Harvard Forest. The study compares the results of field studies that the authors conducted between 2004 and 2007 with previous three previous field studies in the 20th century. It documents the present and historical floras, gives a quantitative analysis of their structure and dynamics, and relates their changes to disturbance and environmental change.

Jenkins, J., G. Motzkin, and K. Ward. 2008. The Harvard Forest Flora. An Inventory, Analysis and Ecological History. Harvard Forest Paper no.28. pp. 266. Note this download is very large

Summer Institute for Teachers

The Harvard Forest offers a Forest Ecology training institute for teachers of grades 2-12. Learn from professional Ecologists how to implement field studies with your students, right in your schoolyard.

Teachers from all districts are encouraged to participate in this orientation on August 6th, 2008 to our year long Schoolyard Ecology program which includes two Schoolyear Seminars in addition to the summer institute. PDPs awarded to all participants. Registration flyer and forms are now available.

Wildlands and Woodlands: Gaining Ground

The 2008 Update has been released. In this issue, it describes momentum with a diverse constituency which has banded together in the Wildlands and Woodlands Partnership to promote the larger W & W vision. This group has encouraged the formation of regional partnerships focused on land protection and forest stewardship, promoted new policy initiatives to fund broad scale land protection and has worked with a large group of landowners in western Massachusetts to develop a regional forest protection effort. Read the update

Harvard Forest Publication

Harvard Forest Ecologist Kristina Stinson, along with former Bullard Fellow John Klironomos (University of Guelph) and researchers at University of Montana and Wright State University, followed up recent work on the antimicrobial properties of the invasive plant, Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard). Their forthcoming paper in the journal Ecology provides new evidence for a novel mechanism by which garlic mustard disrupts below-ground mutalisms between plants and their beneficial microbes. As one of North America’s most aggressive invaders of undisturbed forests, garlic mustard is known to inhibit mycorrhizal fungal mutualists of North American native plants. The authors tested whether these inhibitory effects on mycorrhizas in invaded North American soils are stronger than on mycorrhizas in European soils where A. petiolata is native. They found that suppression of North American mycorrhizal fungi by A. petiolata corresponds with severe inhibition of North American plant species that rely on these fungi, whereas congeneric European plants are only weakly affected. The chemicals involved were identified as a combination of flavinoids and glucosinolates. These results indicate that antifungal phytochemicals, benign to resistant mycorrhizal symbionts in the home range, impose a novel threat to native North American plant species.

Callaway, R.M., D. Cipollini, K. Barto, G.C. Thelen, S.G. Hallett, D Prati, K. Stinson and J. Klironomos. 2008. Novel Weapons: Invasive Plant Suppresses Fungal Mutualists in America but not in Its Native Europe. Ecology.

March 2008 Highlights

Annual Harvard Forest Ecology Symposium

The nineteenth annual Harvard Forest Ecology Symposium will be held March 18, 2008 from 9:00am - 5:00pm at the Harvard Forest. This year's symposium will feature talks and discussion on: New England Landscape Response to Climate Change and Disturbance: Ecosystem Science Addressing Policy Concerns and The Future of Microbial Ecology at Harvard Forest. Learn more, RSVP and/or submit abstracts.

Harvard Forest Ecologist and Former REU Student Receive Award

Haley Smith, an undergraduate student at Oklahoma State University and REU student from the summer of 2007, and forest ecologist David Orwig recently won an award for their poster, "Influence of hemlock woolly adelgid and elongate hemlock scale on leaf-level physiological performance of eastern hemlock." The poster was presented at the 2008 USDA-sponsored Fourth Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Symposium in Hartford, CT.

Dean Establishes Fund to Support FAS Courses Taught at Harvard Forest

The Forest is pleased to announce that FAS Dean Michael Smith has established a fund to support courses being taught at the Forest by FAS faculty. "The intent of the course is to reimburse the Forest for meals and lodging, thereby removing that financial constraint from department budgets so Cambridge-based courses will be encouraged to take advantage of educational opportunities at the Forest. Faculty anticipating activities at the Forest may apply to the fund during preparation of the FY2009 budget." For more information, please contact Edythe Ellin at ellin@fas.harvard.edu

Harvard Forest Publications

Spread and Distribution of Two Invasive Species across Southern New England

Forest ecologist David Orwig along with collaborators Evan Preisser (University of Rhode Island), Alexandra Lodge (Summer 2005 REU student- Kenyon College), and Joe Elkinton (Umass, Amherst) report on the spread and distribution of 2 invasive species (hemlock woolly adelgid-HWA and elongate hemlock scale-EHS) across southern New England. This paper is a follow-up study that resampled 142 eastern hemlock stands originally sampled in the late 1990s (CT stands) or 2002-2004 (MA stands). The number of HWA-infested stands increased but the per-stand HWA density substantially decreased. In contrast, EHS distribution and density increased dramatically since 1997-98. Hemlock mortality was much more strongly related to HWA density than EHS density, and many stands remained relatively healthy despite an overall increase in hemlock mortality. There was a positive correlation between HWA and EHS densities in stands with low mean HWA densities, suggesting the potential for host-plant-mediated facilitation of EHS by HWA. Results suggest that interactions between invasive species may not have outcomes similar to those interactions occurring between native-native or invasive-native species pairs.

Preisser, E.L, A. G. Lodge, D. A. Orwig and J. S. Elkinton. 2008. Range expansion and population dynamics of co-occurring invasive herbivores. Biol Invasions 10:201–213

Water Use by Oak versus Hemlock. Implications for Ecosystem-level Effects of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid

The major significance of this paper is that it shows a red oak-dominated forest, common in many areas of southern New England, uses more water in summer than an old-growth hemlock forest. As a result, if hemlocks that are killed by the hemlock woolly adelgid are eventually replaced by a deciduous forest with oak as the dominant species (or any other species with similarly high water use), forest water use will increase and the amount of water available for streamflow, lakes and reservoirs will be reduced.

The paper also shows that although summer carbon storage in the hemlock forest between July 2004 and June 2006 was much less than in the oak-dominated deciduous forest, the hemlock forest stored enough carbon during relatively mild weather (without freezing nights) in spring and fall, that annual carbon storage in the hemlock forest was comparable to the oak-dominated forest. Climate warming appears likely to increase carbon storage during these spring and fall periods.

Hadley, J.L, P.S. Kuzeja, M.T. Mulcahy and S. Singh. 2008. Water use and carbon exchange of red hemlock dominated forests in the northeastern ecosystem-level effects of hemlock woolly. Tree Physiology 28, 615–627.

February 2008 Highlights

Annual Harvard Forest Ecology Symposium

The nineteenth annual Harvard Forest Ecology Symposium will be held March 18, 2008 from 9:00am - 5:00pm at the Harvard Forest. This year's symposium will feature talks and discussion on: New England Landscape Response to Climate Change and Disturbance: Ecosystem Science Addressing Policy Concerns and The Future of Microbial Ecology at Harvard Forest. Learn more and/or submit abstracts.

Harvard Forest on NPR's Climate Connections

Dan Charles of National Public Radio produced a program aired on December 31, 2007. He captures the work being done here at Harvard forest and helps reveal to the listener the importance of the research. Listen to the story and watch the audio photo show at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17332316

Harvard Forest Schoolyard Students Give Presentation to the Mass. Secretary of Energy and the Environment

Three sixth-grade students who participated in Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology projects in 3rd, 4th and 5th grades, gave a presentation to Ian Bowles, Secretary of Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA. The students from the JR Briggs Elementary School in Ashburnham shared their experiences in the field-based ecological research projects related to Vernal Pools, Leaf Phenology and the Hemlock Woolly Adeldgid. Fifth grade teacher, Kate Bennett, introduced the presentation along with Mary Marro of the Nashua River Watershed Association. All three of HF's protocols were presented in an impressive powerpoint presentation that the students prepared and presented.

Sampling New Hampshire Forest Vegetation

The Harvard Forest is seeking two college students/recent grads with field experience in sampling forest vegetation as part of its 2008 Summer Research Program in Ecology. The two interns will work together with minimal supervision, laying out plots, sampling vegetation (trees, shrubs, herbs), soils and environmental conditions, and entering data into spreadsheets. This summer’s work will serve as the first census of a long-term ecological monitoring program for the more than 4000 acres of forest protected and managed by the Blue Hills Foundation in southern New Hampshire. Learn More.

Harvard Forest Publications

Invasive Species Distribution

Despite the recognized importance of historical factors in controlling many native species distributions, few studies have incorporated historical landscape changes into models of invasive species distribution and abundance. We surveyed 159 currently forested sites for the occurrence and abundance of Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry), an invasive, non-native shrub in forests of the northeastern U.S., relative to modern environmental conditions, contemporary logging activity, and two periods of historical land use. Modern edaphic characteristics explained a significant portion of the variation in B. thunbergii occurrence, whereas site history considerably improved predictions of population density and helped evaluate potential invasion mechanisms. Our results indicate that interpretations of both native community composition and modern plant invasions must consider the importance of historical landscape changes and the timing of species introduction along with current environmental conditions.

DeGasperis, B.G. and G. Motzkin. 2007. Windows of Opportunity: Historical and Ecological Controls on Berberis thunbergii invasions. Ecology, 88(12), pp. 3115–3125.

Mangrove Management Activities

In June 2006, Harvard Forest Senior Ecologist Aaron Ellison delivered the keynote address at the 2nd Meeting on the Mangrove Macrobenthos. Selected papers from this meeting have just been published in the Journal of Sea Research. In the lead paper, Ellison addresses mangrove management activities in the broader context of the diversity of animals such as crabs and prawns that depend on mangroves for substrate, food, and shelter and that also are exploited as human food sources. Exploitation of mangrove-associated prawns, crabs, and molluscs has a total economic value exceeding US $4 Billion each year, but world-wide patterns of exploitation fit the process described by economists as "roving banditry". Roving bandits are people and multinational corporations who move from location to location, rapidly exploiting and depleting local resources before moving on to other, as-yet unprotected areas. Ellison argues that to effectively manage mangrove fauna that management for ecosystem services, not immediate profit, is the only way to preserve the total biodiversity of this threatened ecosystem.

Ellison, A. M. 2008. Managing mangroves with benthic biodiversity in mind: moving beyond roving banditry. Journal of Sea Research 59: 2-15.

Read all the papers in this issue

January 2008 Highlights

Harvard Forest Policy Analyst Receives Award from the Society of American Foresters

The New England section of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) has announced that David Kittredge has been elected Fellow to the Society for 2007. SAF recognizes members who have provided outstanding contributions to the Society over a sustained period and have distinguished themselves in the forestry profession with the title Fellow. There are only 38 Fellows in New England (out of a membership of 1,100) and this includes notably Dave’s major professor at Yale University, Dr. David M. Smith.

2008 Harvard Forest Summer Program in Ecology for Undergraduates

We are now accepting applications for the 2008 Summer Program from undergraduates and recent graduates who are interested in an intensive research and education experience in ecology. Deadline: Feb. 1, 2008. Learn more

2008 Charles Bullard Fellowships in Forestry

We are now accepting applications for 6-12 months fellowships for advanced research and study by persons who show promise of making an important contribution, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry defined in its broadest sense as the human use of forested environments. Deadline: Feb. 1, 2008. Learn more

Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology Participants win 2007 Teachers of the Year Awards

We are proud to announce that both the Massachusetts Audubon Society's and the Nashua River Watershed Association's 2007 Teacher of the Year awards were given to Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology participants!

Tewksbury High School teacher, Elaine Senechal(photo on left) won the Massachusetts Audubon Conservation Teacher of the Year award. Nashua River Watershed Association Education Coordinator, Mary Marro (center) presents the NRWA 2007 Education Award to J.R. Briggs Elementary School Teachers, Mary Gagnon (left) and Kate Bennett (right)

All three of these teachers are involved in their 3rd year of implementing field ecology projects coordinated by the Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology program. Elaine Senechal is leading her High School students in a field ecology project called "Buds, Leaves, and Global Warming", which is a phenological study done in coordination with Harvard Forest Ecologist, Dr. John O'Keefe. Mary Gagnon's third grade students are immersed in the "Water in the Landscape: Vernal Pools" project done in coordination with Freshwater Ecologist, Dr. Betsy Colburn. Kate Bennett's 5th grade students are implementing the "Hemlock Trees and the Pesky Pest, the Woolly Adelgid project in cooperation with Forest Ecologist, Dr. David Orwig.

LTER releases Decadal Science Plan

The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, www.lternet.edu, has released its new Decadal Science Plan, which maps out the Network's science agenda for the next 10 years. Titled "Integrative Science for Society and the Environment(ISSE): A Plan for Research, Education, and Cyberinfrastructure in the U.S. Long-Term Ecological Research Network," the plan makes an ambitious call for research that extends the Network's foundational strength in ecology and environmental biology to also embrace the sociological sciences relevant to human-environment interactions. David Foster, Harvard Forest Director, participated in the writing team for the Plan and the ISSE. Read the entire press release.

New Harvard Forest Publication

Former Harvard Forest Bullard Fellow Elizabeth Farnsworth and Harvard Forest Senior Ecologist Aaron Ellison examine scaling relationships among leaf traits of 10 species of pitcher plants (Sarracenia species) fed different quantities of insect prey. Increased prey availability increased photosystem efficiencey (as expressed by the ratio of Fv/Fm), chlorophyll content, and photosynthetic rate. It also led to a shift from P- to N-limitation in subsequently produced pitchers. Increased prey also shifted leaf-trait scaling relationships, bringing them more in line with those found for a wide range of non-carnivorous plant species. The results support a general hypothesis published in 2006 by Bill Shipley and his colleagues that suggested that observed scaling relationships amongst leaf traits derive from trade-offs in allocation to structural tissues versus liquid-phase (e.g., photosynthetic) processes. These trade-offs appear to be especially constraining for plants growing in extremely nutrient-poor habitats such as bogs and other wetlands.

Farnsworth, E. J., and A. M. Ellison. 2008. Prey availability directly affects physiology, growth, nutrient allocation, and scaling relationships among leaf traits in ten carnivorous plant species. Journal of Ecology 96: 213-221.

December 2007 Highlights

2008 Harvard Forest Summer Program in Ecology for Undergraduates

We are now accepting applications for the 2008 Summer Program from undergraduates and recent graduates who are interested in an intensive research and education experience in ecology. Deadline: Feb. 1, 2008. Learn more

2008 Charles Bullard Fellowships in Forestry

We are now accepting applications for 6-12 months fellowships for advanced research and study by persons who show promise of making an important contribution, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry defined in its broadest sense as the human use of forested environments. Deadline: Feb. 1, 2008. Learn more

Centennial Edition - New England Forests Through Time

The Harvard Forest Centennial Edition (1907-2007) reprinting of New England Forests Through Time: Insights from the Harvard Forest Dioramas is now available. Along with the diorama illustrations and interpretations that made the first printing so popular, this edition contains a new preface, "Forests Past, Present, and Future", and updated "Suggested Further Readings." Copies can be purchased.

New grant for climate change research

The Department of Energy has awarded $3.4 Million to a four-university consortium that includes Harvard University's Harvard Forest, North Carolina State, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Vermont for a four-year study of the effects of climate change on the ecological dynamics of ants and other soil invertebrates. In early 2008, ten 5-meter (16-foot) diameter open-top chambers will be installed at Harvard Forest and in North Carolina. The air and soil in these chambers will be warmed to between 1 and 7 degrees C above current conditions to simulate climatic conditions expected to occur in the eastern United States in the next century. The study will examine changes in the number of species of soil-dwelling invertebrates and changes in the size and activity of ants. We are particularly interested to see if northern species are excluded from our experimental chambers by increasing temperature, and if southern species colonize these "hot-spots" in the landscape.

New Journal Articles

The Analytic Web project, a long-term collaboration between ecologists at Harvard Forest and computer scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is developing methods to ensure that scientific data analyses are sound and reproducible. This paper considers how such methods might be applied to a complex, real-time system for measuring the movement of water through a small forested watershed at the Harvard Forest.

Boose, E. R., A. M. Ellison, L. J. Osterweil, L. A. Clarke, R. Podorozhny, J. L. Hadley, A. Wise, and D. R. Foster. 2007. Ensuring reliable datasets for environmental models and forecasts. Ecological Informatics 2: 237-247.

What effect do protected lands have on land conservation or development nearby in the surrounding landscape? Using information on land cover and land protection over time for three sites (western North Carolina, central Massachusetts, and central Arizona), this paper aimed to answer this question. At all sites, newly protected conservation areas tended to cluster close to preexisting protected areas. Land protection breeds more land protection. On the other hand, on two of our three sites the development rate was significantly greater in regions with more protected land. Protected lands appear to be an amenity that increases nearby development. These twin trends- increased land protection and increased development nearby previously protected lands- suggest that each conservation action should be justified and valued largely for what is protected on the targeted land, without much hope of broader conservation leverage effects on the surrounding landowners.

McDonald, R.I., C. Yuan-Farrell, C. Fievet, M. Moeller, P. Kareiva, D. Foster, T. Gragson, A. Kinzig, L. Kuby, and C. Redman (2007) Estimating the Effect of Protected Lands on the Development and Conservation of Their Surroundings. Conservation Biology.

Old Growth Publications

Tony D'Amato, former REU and recent Ph.D. graduate, produced an outreach pamphlet with Paul Catanzaro that introduces the habitat features of old-growth forests, outlines management options and resources for restoring these features to woodlands, and discusses the opportunities to obtain economic and ecological benefits from second-growth forests. Management strategies range from hands-off approaches to active management practices and can be implemented in a variety of intensities, stages, and combinations to fit within landowner objectives.

D'Amato, Anthony and P. Catanzaro. 2007. Restoring old-growth characteristics. Outreach pamphlet, Umass Extension, Amherst, MA.

Havard Forest Ecologist David Orwig and Tony D'Amato recently contributed to the New England Society of American Forester's News Quarterly (Oct. 2007). This issues features old growth in the northeastern U.S. as the quarterly theme. They provide an overview of Tony's recently completed Ph.D. work and focus on the old-growth forest remaining in southern New England and how can it help inform management decisions. Findings suggest that relatively frequent, small-scale disturbances were common in the hemlock dominated old-growth forests of western Massachusetts. Structural, compositional, and historical development comparisons between old-growth and second growth hemlock forests are provided as guides to help restore old-growth elements and aid disturbance-based silviculture strategies for forests in this region.

Orwig, D.A. and A. D'Amato. 2007. Southern New England old-growth forests: how much is left and can they help inform management decisions? pp. 10-11 in Old Growth in the Northeast. New England Society of American Foresters Quarterly

November 2007 Highlights

Renewable Energy at Harvard Forest

A new renewable energy source was recently commissioned at Harvard Forest. In mid-July 2007, Moss Hollow, LLC (Lunenburg, MA) completed installation of a 10KW solar array next to the new Facilities Barn. Support for this $100,000 project included grants from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Small Renewables Initiative and Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean's Fund; the balance was covered by the HU Green Campus Loan Fund. In the three months since the array began functioning, the system has generated more than 4,000 kWh of electricity. The solar array is part of the electrical system providing energy for all long-term experiments on the Prospect Hill Tract. These experiments, which explore the impact of global warming on the environment, now receive approximately 8% of their power needs from this renewable energy source. View energy output online.

Richard Hale Goodwin - Memorial Reflection

My first reflection on Dick's accomplishments is that his career and life were so diverse, so wide-reaching and so darn long that few people came to know more than even a small percentage of his greatness. an excerpt by David Foster, Director of Harvard Forest, former student and friend. Read the entire memorial reflection.

Harvard Forest 2007-2008 Charles Bullard Fellows in Forest Research.

Applications for 2008-2009 now being accepted

Harvard Forest is pleased to announce the 2007-2008 Charles Bullard Fellows in Forest Research. The purpose of this fellowship program, established in 1962, is to support advanced research and study by persons who show promise of making important contributions, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry defined in its broadest sense as the human use and study of forested environments.

This year's Bullard Fellows were selected from a large pool of international applicants and cover a broad array of forest-related subjects. These seven distinguished practitioners and academics from across the United States and the globe will spend one to two semesters conducting research based in Cambridge or at the Harvard Forest in Petersham. The breadth of research encompassed by this year's class of scholars is vast, ranging from ecosystem, historical and avian ecology to ant biology and biogeography to social analysis of forest landowners to long-term, continental scale climate patterns.

The Charles Bullard Fellows for the 2007-2008 Academic year are:

Elisabeth Almgren, a paleoecologist and anthropologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, will be collaborating with David Foster, Wyatt Oswald, Matts Lindbladh and other scientists on a comparative study of cultural landscape development and conservation in Scandinavia and the Northeastern U.S. During her 12-month fellowship Almgren will also be developing and implementing interpretive public exhibits based on past, present and future research from the Harvard Forest. The project will expand the present educational options for the general public visiting Harvard Forest by providing additional popular presentations of scientific results and may lead to further collaboration with the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

Charles Cogbill, a forest ecologist at the Hubbard Brook Long Term Ecological Research site in New Hampshire, will incorporate a historical perspective, especially archival data, in investigations of the floristics, development, and biogeography of northeastern forests. His activities will revolve around assembly, organization, and analysis of a comprehensive database of northeastern vegetation before European settlement. He will be extending early surveyors' witness tree records westward across New York and northern Pennsylvania, creating an archived digital database of township witness-tree composition from across the Northeast, analyzing these data using geographic information systems and geo-spatial statistics, and assessing the historical biogeography of dominant trees and background disturbance processes in forests. He will work extensively with scientists at the Harvard Forest, the Harvard University Herbaria, and the Arnold Arboretum.

Todd Crowl, a quantitative ecologist at Utah State University, has worked on research projects dealing with detrital processing and food web dynamics, particularly within streams draining the Luquillo Mountains in Puerto Rico. Crowl is currently part of a large integrated project collecting data on hurricane impacts to forests. The focus of Crowl's six-month work as a Charles Bullard Fellow will be interactions with Aaron Ellison and David Foster to explore ways to analyze and synthesize large experimental data sets; host a number of short analysis and writing sessions with Puerto Rican colleagues; and host a NSF funded National Ecological Observatory Network workshop after site selection.

Rebecca Holberton is an avian ecologist from the biology department at the University of Maine. Holberton's work focuses on the interaction between environmental factors such as weather, food availability and habitat quality and physiological constraints during the migratory period. During her fellowship, she will be conducting a study emphasizing Blackpoll warbler (Dendroica striata) physiological state and key forest community characteristics over time and space during migration. This research will explore how an individual's condition can relate to variation in community structure, particularly during the period of fall migration when communities may be undergoing rapid seasonal changes.

Michael Kaspari studies community ecology and biogeography at the University of Oklahoma. Kaspari's research centers on the behavior, function, and biogeography of soil arthropods in tropical forests, which has prompted the interest of E.O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor, emeritus, in collaborative work. As a Charles Bullard Fellow, Kaspari's work will extend to the eastern forests of North America and in collaboration with Aaron Ellison and other researchers, he will explore how metabolic and stoichiometric theories predict patterns of decomposition and abundance in detrital food webs.

Mark Rickenbach investigates social networks and private forest policy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. During his time as a Charles Bullard Fellow, Rickenbach will study social networks to better understand forest landowners' decisions. This expanded view of forest landowners will lead toward the creation of novel research and meaningful policy and practice change. Through this study, which will complement research undertaken by David Kittredge in the Harvard Forest LTER program, he will formulate new research and outreach objectives that will advance the thoughtful stewardship and conservation of natural and managed ecosystems.

During his six-month Charles Bullard Fellowship, Nicholas Rodenhouse will focus his studies on quantifying the indirect effects of climate change on a forest bird population by using structural equation modeling. He also aims to organize a cross-site comparison of northern temperate forest patterns and processes among three regions: northeastern North America, northeastern Poland (exemplified by the Bialoweiza Forest) and far eastern Russia (represented by Kedrovaya Pad). Rodenhouse teaches and studies population ecology at Wellesley University.

October 2007 Highlights

Fall Foliage - 2007

The photographs below show foliage color at the end of September in 2005, 2006, and 2007 at the edge of the pasture adjacent to the headquarters of the Harvard Forest. The following presentation shows the progression of foliage from 2005 thru 2007.

2005	2006	2007

Based on observations of leaf color and leaf drop on the same trees over the past 18 years by John O'Keefe, 2005 was a rather late fall and 2006 was an early fall, about a week ahead of 2005. It is still to soon to say where 2007 will wind up, but the very dry weather in August and early September led to some drought stress and color/drop of leaves, most noticeable on the birches and maples.

The bright sunny days this September have led to good anthocyanin (red pigment) production. Unlike the yellow carotenoid pigments, which are present through the growing season and then unmasked as chlorophyll breaks down in the fall, these red anthocyanins are produced by sunlight during leaf senescence. Learn more about leaf color.

New Large-scale Experiment at the Harvard Forest:

Early Successional Habitat Dynamics in Former Plantations

The Harvard Forest plans to harvest about 100 acres of mature plantation forests in Winter 2007-2008 in order to terminate these long term experiments, to regenerate a diversity of native tree species and restore native forests to these sites, and to initiate a new suite of long term experiments. For the next 10-15 years, the harvested areas will provide early successional habitat for a variety of wildlife species. Learn more about this experiment.

New Journal Articles

The analysis of stomata in lake-sediment cores is increasingly used as a paleoecological tool. Stomata are less likely than pollen grains to be dispersed over long distances, and thus stomate records supplement and enhance interpretations based on pollen data by providing information about patterns and composition of local vegetation. We have conducted the first study of this type in New England, analyzing conifer stomata in the late-glacial and early-Holocene sediments of Berry Pond, Massachusetts. Comparison of the stomate record with pollen data tests the ability of both approaches to reflect the history of vegetation at the study site.

W.W. Oswald, B.C.S. Hansen, D.R. Foster. 2007. New England Note: Comparison of Pollen and Stomata in Late-glacial and early-holocen lake sediments from Eastern Massachusetts. Rhodora, Vol. 109, No. 938, pp. 225–229.

Harvard Forest Senior Research Fellow Aaron Ellison, along with Ph.D. student Sydne Record, 2006 REU student Alex Arguello, and Nick Gotelli (University of Vermont) inventoried the ant assemblage at Black Rock Forest in Cornwall, New York. The inventory was conducted as part of Black Rock's oak removal experiment, which parallels Harvard Forest's Hemlock removal experiment. The study also assessed the utility of different methods of sampling for ant diversity studies in the north temperate zone. Our results suggest that hand sampling and litter collection alone are adequate to identify at least 95% of the ant diversity at the site; that ant species richness in these oak forests ranges at a minimum from 38-58 taxa; and that loss of oak will likely result in an increased aboundance of Camponotus and Lasius species.

Ellison, A.M., S. Record, A. Arguello, and N.J. Gotelli. 2007. Rapid inventory of the ant assemblage in a temperate hardwood forest: species composition and sampling methods. Environmental Entomology 36: 766-775.

Aaron Ellison and his research assistant Jess Butler completed a 2-year study of nitrogen cycling dynamics in the pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea. Their results show that most nitrogen is stored aboveground (in developing pitchers), and that root storage accounted for < 3% of the plant's overall nitrogen budget. The results suggest why this carnivorous plant has such a low photosynthetic rate, given its tissue nitrogen content. Excess nitrogen is stored for future use rather than being used immediately for enhancing photosynthesis.

Butler, J. L. and A. M. Ellison. 2007. Nitrogen cycling dynamics in the carnivorous northern pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea. Functional Ecology 21: 835-843.

September 2007 Highlights

Plant Physiology Lab Renovated

Harvard Forest, with the assistance of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and an anonymous donor, recently completed renovation of a plant physiology lab in Shaler Hall. The renovated lab will be used by undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and Harvard Forest and visiting researchers. N. Michelle (Missy) Holbrook, Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry, (OEB) and P. Barry Tomlinson, E. C. Jeffrey Professor of Biology, (Emeritus) both will be using the lab as a core part of their on-going research and education efforts.

Advanced Undergraduate Research Course Offered

David Foster, Missy Holbrook, Kathleen Donohue and Kristina Stinson will offer a new, advanced research course for Harvard undergraduates this fall. This unique peer learning/workshop format provides formal training to students actively engaged in the research process. Students will develop publications, presentations, senior theses, and/or interdisciplinary collaborations from current or recent field research activities. OEB 193 includes focused reading and discussion of student work and relevant literature, plus hands-on training and workshops at the Harvard Forest in scientific writing/presentations, mapping/graphics, and experimental design/analysis. Small class size will allow content to be tailored to the individual research needs of enrollees. Visit the course website for more information.

Harvard Forest Researcher Interviewed

Harvard Forest senior research fellow Aaron Ellison was interviewed for BBC Wildlife Magazine about his research on carnivorous plants. Read the interview.

Harvard Forest Summer Institute for Teachers Attendance Doubles

36 Teachers and Environmental Educators participated in this year's Harvard Forest Summer in Ecology - Summer Institute for Teachers. Thirty-three K-12 teachers from throughout Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire came to HF to learn directly from Forest Ecologists, Dr. David Orwig and Dr. John O'Keefe. Staff from Massachusetts Audubon Society, Plum Island LTER, the Nashua River Watershed Association, and the Boston Science Museum attended the training in order to find ways to integrate ecological field research into their work with children as well. These participants will in turn lead their students in implementing field research beginning this fall. Research topics include: Buds, Leaves and Global Warming and Hemlock Trees and the Pesky Pest, the Woolly Adelgid.

New publications

Natural History from Rarely Studied Hardwood Trees

Tree-ring research has made significant contributions to the understanding of environmental change and forest stand dynamics. Its application to understanding natural history, however, has been limited. Recent tree-ring data from several rarely studied hardwood species collected by Niel Pederson, Tony D'Amato, and David Orwig has yielded ages well beyond maximum expectations. For example, a sampling of 20 cucumbertrees (Magnolia acuminata) included two individuals 315 and 348 years, respectively, which are nearly two centuries more than the average life expectancy reported for this species. Also, research in recently discovered old-growth stands in western Massachusetts has illustrated the common occurrence of black birch (B. lenta) in eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) dominated old-growth forests with individuals often living beyond 320 years in these systems. These studies have illustrated the importance of utilizing tree-ring research to expand our knowledge of previously overlooked central hardwood species.

Pederson, N., A. W. D’Amato, and D. A. Orwig. 2007. Natural History from Dendrochronology: Maximum Ages and Canopy Persistence of Rarely Studied Hardwood Species. In: Proceedings of the 15th Central Hardwood Forest Conference. Knoxville, TN.

Fire Impact on Ant Communities

Harvard Forest Senior Research Fellow Aaron Ellison and colleagues at the University of Tennessee, University of Vermont, and Humbold State University examined patterns of co-occurrence of ant species in forests and wetlands in the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon and California that were burned by the Biscuit Fire in 2001. They found that the "assembly rules" acting on these ant communities varied with scale and across years, but there were no long-lasting effects of this large fire.

Sanders, N. J., N. J. Gotelli, S. E. Wittman, J. S. Ratchford, A. M. Ellison, and E. S. Jules. 2007. Assembly rules of ground-foraging ant assemblages are contingent on disturbance, habitat, and spatial scale. Journal of Biogeography 34: 1632-1641.

August 2007 Highlights

Richard Goodwin - Botanist, Conservationist and Friend

Dick Goodwin was many things: a dedicated professor of botany who inspired generations of Connecticut College students and guided them into the world of plants, people and their ecology; a conservation visionary who helped to found The Nature Conservancy and who for more than five decades served as president of the Conservation Research Foundation, which provides "seed monies" for new conservation studies and projects worldwide; and an inspirational individual who lived life fully and gracefully with his wife Esther and committed his energies to applying what he preached.

Among Dick's legacies are two of the most important conservation landscapes in Connecticut: the Burnham Brook Preserve, whose more than 1000 acres were assembled largely by Dick and Esther around their home at Dolbia Farm and are now owned by The Nature Conservancy and the Connecticut College Arboretum , which is now more than 750 acres of natural and research areas, plant collections, and the entire Connecticut College campus in the towns of New London and Waterford. Dick served for many years as Director of the Arboretum, he helped to assemble and document its lands and he oversaw its long-term development with his colleague of four decades Bill Niering.

Dick was also a dedicated friend of the Harvard Forest and botany at Harvard University, where he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees. Inspired by his example and always informed by his advice and perspectives, one of our great pleasures in recent years was to work with Dick to publish his autobiography A Botanist's Window on the Twentieth Century. Dick was 96 years old.

Read his obituary from the New York Times News Service.

65 year-old Fingerprints from 1938 Hurricane found in Remotely-Sensed Data

Analyzing airborne LiDAR (i.e., laser remote sensing) data acquired by NASA in 2003, researchers found differences in measures of canopy structure in stands across the Prospect Hill tract at Harvard Forest. Canopy height and vertical diversity were related to the predominant species present and the intensity of wind disturbance from the 1938 hurricane and associated timber extraction efforts. Given the importance of canopy structure to habitat and ecosystem functions, such as gas exchange, this disturbance legacy probably continues to influence the ecology of impacted New England forests.

Weishampel, J.F., J. B. Drake, A. Cooper, J. B. Blair, M. Hofton. Forest canopy recovery from the 1938 hurricane and subsequent salvage damage measured with airborne LiDAR. 2007. Remote Sensing of Environment 109. pp. 142–153.

July 2007 Highlights

Bob Marshall's Research Plots Recovered and Resampled

In the summer of 1924, Bob Marshall, future founder of the Wilderness Society and career forester and ecologist for the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Indian Affairs came to Petersham to join four other graduate students for studies with Professor Richard Fisher and instructors Albert Cline and Rupe Gast. The group developed a large new experiment on the Tom Swamp tract to examine forest regeneration and dynamics following different logging treatments. Marshall analyzed the land-use history of the tract, extensively sampled tree rings to determine long-term growth trends and established a 80 x 200 foot plot for intensive study. His work is documented in Harvard Forest Bulletin 11: The Growth of Hemlock Before and After Release from Suppression. Following Marshall's departure in 1925, the 1938 hurricane and subsequent harvesting the plot was lost.

This summer, as part of a long-term study of forest dynamics, land use history and conservation coordinated by David Foster, students Alex Ireland (Clarion University) and Ben Mew (Oberlin College) are exploring the experimental tract in detail and reconstructing Marshall's study. Through a painstaking process they have relocated and permanently marked Bob Marshall's plot. Sampling of the current forest on the site confirms Marshall's prediction, based on his own historical work, that hemlock and white pine would predominate across the area, regardless of treatment.

Bird Populations Respond to Climate Change, Land Use and Winter Feeding

Rosemary Balfour completed her Masters of Liberal Arts degree at Harvard in June working with thesis advisors David Foster and Wayne Petersen of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Rosemary's study utilized Christmas Bird Count data to examine the long-term trends in the abundance and composition of the bird populations that overwinter across the inland regions of Massachusetts. Her research concluded that there were major increases in the ratio of southern to northern ranging bird species and that these could be tied to a number of factors including: warming temperatures, changes in land use, and the greatly increased use of bird feeders. In her work Rosemary received considerable assistance form Harvard Forest scientists: Aaron Ellison, Glenn Motzkin and Brian Hall.

Balfour, R. P. 2007. The Impact of Changes in Average Winter Temperatures and Habitat Modification on Populations of Terrestrial Birds Over-wintering in Inland Areas of Massachusetts. Master's Thesis. Harvard University.

The Connecticut River Boating Guide: Source to Sea

Elizabeth Farnsworth (Bullard Fellow, 2005-6) has published The Connecticut River Boating Guide: Source to Sea, with co-authors, John and Wendy Sinton. The Bullard Fellowship supported much of the research and writing for this book. For all those who enjoy appreciating and recreating on New Englands largest river, this guide is packed with practical information on accessing the river, as well as extensive notes on the history and ecology of the region. Available in bookstores or direct from the web. All royalties benefit the Connecticut River Watershed Council, a regional organization that collaborates, educates, organizes, restores, and intervenes to preserve the health of the whole river for generations to come.

A New Understanding of Subsurface Flow in Headwater Streams

In many headwater streams in stony north-central Massachusetts, much of the water flows below the surface of the ground instead of in an open channel. Harvard Forest researchers, including summer students working through the NSF-funded Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program, compared water temperatures, chemistry, and aquatic life in surface and subsurface-flowing sections of Bigelow Brook-west, a small, hemlock-dominated headwater stream on the west side of Prospect Hill in Petersham, MA. Subsurface reaches support aquatic insects and other freshwater animals and are similar to surface reaches. Better understanding of so-called "intermittent" streams that actually flow continuously may contribute to changes in state and local regulations affecting these headwater habitats.

Collins, B. M., W. V. Sobczak, and E. A. Colburn. 2007. Subsurface Flowpaths in a Forested Headwater Stream Harbor. A Diverse Macroinvertebrate Community. Wetlands. 27(2): 319-325.

A Guide for Interpreting Historical Materials

Emery Boose, Information Manager at Harvard Forest, co-authored Scholastic Sanskrit: A Manual for Students. This volume gives a complete introduction to the techniques and procedures of Sanskrit commentaries, including detailed information on the overall structure of running commentaries, the standard formulas of analysis of complex grammatical forms, and the most important elements of commentarial style.

June 2007 Highlights

Interns Arrive for Summer Program in Ecology

Twenty-one summer students have arrived as part of the Harvard Forest summer research program in ecology. Students come from all over the United States to participate in on-going research projects investigating atmospheric pollution, global warming, invasive plants, watershed ecology, and insect outbreaks. Researchers come from many disciplines and institutions. Specific projects center on population and community ecology, plant physiology, insect ecology, land-use history, aquatic ecology, biogeochemistry, and atmosphere-biosphere exchanges.

New Elemental Analyzer for John G. Torrey Laboratory

Harvard Forest has just acquired a new elemental analyzer for the John G. Torrey Nutrient Laboratory. Purchased with National Science Foundation LTER funding, the Elementar vario MICRO analyzer can be used for measurements of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. The new, user-friendly equipment is a nice complement to the Lachat 8500 autoanalyzer in the laboratory and is being used for a variety of ongoing projects requiring soil, plant tissue and foliar analyses. In addition, this machine will be used by faculty, staff and students from several Harvard University Departments, as well as outside institutions.

New Journal Articles Published

Land-use History Effect on Forest Ecosystems

We used stable N isotopes in tree rings and lake sediments to demonstrate that N availability in a northeastern forest has declined over the past 75 years, likely because of ecosystem recovery from Euro-American land use. Forest N availability has only recently returned to levels forecast from presettlement trajectories, rendering the trajectory of future forest N cycling uncertain. Our results suggest that chronic disturbance caused by humans, especially logging and agriculture, are major drivers of terrestrial N cycling in forest ecosystems today, even a century after cessation.

McLauchlan, K. K., J. M. Craine, W. W. Oswald, P. R. Leavitt, and G. E. Likens. 2007. Changes in nitrogen cycling during the past century in a northern hardwood forest. PNAS 104:18. pp. 7466–7470.

Wildlife in an urban environment

Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum, located in Jamaica Plain in Boston, Massachusetts provides critical wildlife habitat within an urban landscape. One especially unique area of the Arboretum, Hemlock Hill, is currently undergoing extensive vegetative changes. A very large percentage of the hemlock trees located here have been infested with hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) and are being removed. This study establishes baseline data on terrestrial salamander species composition, relative abundance, and distribution on Hemlock Hill, and assesses the impact of logging on terrestrial salamander abundance

B. Mathewson. 2007 Salamanders in a Changing Environment on Hemlock Hill. Arnoldia 65/1 pp. 19 - 25.

May 2007 Highlights

2007-2008 Bullard Fellow Recipients Announced

The Charles Bullard fellowship program is to support advanced research and study by individuals who show promise of making an important contribution, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry and forest-related subjects from biology to earth sciences, economics, politics, administration or law. See the complete listing of Bullard Scholars from 1962 - 2006.

Harvard Forest's 100 year old records made available with a Library Digital Initiative grant

For nearly a century, detailed records for all research and forestry operations on the Harvard Forest properties have been maintained in the form of extensive research files, maps, photographs, and other materials. This information allows researchers to interpret the landscape history of research sites, and analyze how past natural and anthropogenic factors influence current ecological patterns. The Harvard Forest is the best documented research forest in the world and is an irreplaceable asset.

Harvard University's Library Digital Initiative (LDI) has provided funding to digitize a number of these archival materials. The LDI grant will provide a great start to populating a central repository for digital resources related to the 3000 acre Harvard Forest lab and classroom. Students, scientists and collaborators have used the land and its associated research facilities to explore topics ranging from conservation and environmental change to land-use history and the ways in which physical, biological and human systems interact to change our earth.

Materials to be digitized as part of the LDI project include:

• 1000 digitally born high resolution images
• 175 historical black and white photographic prints
• 150 Lantern and 35mm slides
• 33,000 pages of stand records and forest inventory from original paper resources
• and the creation of a searchable metadata catalog for all research records stored in the archives.

The first products of this initiative have been digitized and are available for viewing. At the completion of the project a comprehesive webpage will provide a new gateway to the Harvard Forest digital resources.

Fisher Museum Open on Weekends

Starting May 5^th, the Fisher Museum will be open 12 - 4 on Saturdays and Sundays. The Fisher Museum features twenty-three internationally acclaimed models (dioramas) portraying the history, conservation and management of central New England forests. Other exhibits at the museum represent the range of Harvard Forest's research.

Undergraduate Thesis Investigates the Effect of Harvesting on the Carbon-cycle

Harvard College senior Frances C. O'Donnell completed her thesis Carbon Dynamics of a New England Temperate Forest Five Years After Selective Logging. The thesis quantifies how the carbon source-sink dynamics of the forest was modified due to harvesting activities based on field work conducted at the Harvard Forest. Frances' advisor is Professor Steven Wofsy of the Harvard University Department of Earth and Planetary Science. She participated in the 2006 Summer Research Program in Ecology for Undergraduates at the Harvard Forest. Next fall, Frances will begin a masters program at the University of Indiana.

Two New Journal Articles

Oswald, W. W., E. K. Faison, D. R. Foster, E. D. Doughty, B. R. Hall and B. C. S. Hansen. 2007. Post-glacial changes in spatial patterns of vegetation across southern New England. Journal of Biogeography 34, 900–913.

Lindbladh, M., W. W. Oswald, D. R. Foster, E. K. Faison, J. Hou, Y. Huang. 2007. A late-glacial transition from Picea glauca to Picea mariana in southern New England. Quaternary Research. 67 502–508.

April 2007 Highlights

Harvard Forest Nominated as Core Site for NEON

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON, Inc.) announced a group of 20 candidate Core Sites across the United States that will be included in the NEON Project Execution Plan. Harvard Forest was identified as the core site for the Northeastern Domain. The NEON Core Sites will be in wildlands (i.e, largely natural vegetation, not intensively managed) and will form the stable, fixed elements of the design, which also includes relocatable gradient sites and mobile (truck mounted) laboratories. The Core Sites will be in place for 30 or more years, have extensive sampling and instrumentation, and serve as a base for staff operating the site and associated gradient and mobile laboratories. The Core Site backbone hopes to observe national-scale impacts of highly “connected” phenomena across the entire country. Examples include impacts of invasion or disease, climate change, large-scale modes of variability such as El Niño, and large-scale transport phenomena, such as inputs of Asiatic dust and pollution.

Summer Institute for Teachers

The Harvard Forest offers a Forest Ecology training institute for teachers of grades 2-12. Learn how to implement field studies related to local ecosystems with your students right in your schoolyard. Registration flyer and forms are now available.

Previous participants have recently posted 4 new Data Analysis lesson plans developed by experienced Schoolyard Ecology teachers: Nichole Ruggles, Kellie Robichaud, Kathleen Bennett, and Mary Gagnon along with support from Harvard Forest Ecologists: Elizabeth Colburn, John O'Keefe, and David Orwig. Lesson plan development was funded by the Massachusetts Environmental Trust.

Harvard Forest in the News

Christian Science Monitor highlights the return of moose to Massachusetts due to landscape change and return of forest. As land was cleared for farms in the Northeast, moose and other wildlife fled. Now that the trees are back, the moose are, too. Read the article.

New Article from Harvard Forest

Coastal sandplain grasslands of New England harbor a number of rare plant species, but few systematic management techniques have been developed to help foster or restore these critical habitats. Farnsworth (2007) applied a comparative, functional group approach to coastal sandplain grassland taxa in order to examine whether rare plant species share certain aspects of rarity and life history characters that are distinct from their more common, co-occurring relatives in these habitats. The paired comparisons revealed that infrequent species are intrinsically rarer range-wide, occupy a narrower range and a more specialized habitat than their common relatives; they also produce larger seeds, are smaller, rely less on vegetative (colonial) reproduction, and tend toward an annual or biennial life history. Management steps to reduce competition from larger-statured, colonial, perennial species are recommended for these infrequent species.

Farnsworth, E.J. 2007. Plant life history traits of rare versus frequent plant taxa of sandplains: Implications for research and management trials. Biological Conservation. 136. pp 44-52

March 2007 Highlights

Annual Harvard Forest Ecology Symposium

The eighteenth annual symposium will be held March 27, 2007 at the Harvard Forest. The symposium will focus on the expanding horizons in long-term ecological research: synthesis across the New England region and disciplinary boundaries. Learn more or submit abstract.

Harvard Forest teams with local land trust and land owners to protect adjacent forest land.

The Harvard Forest has partnered with Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust, Keith Ross of LandVest, state conservation agencies and local land owners to permanently protect nearly 170 acres of forest in two large parcels adjacent to the Prospect Hill tract. This project advances our goal of maintaining the integrity of Harvard Forest studies and contributes significantly to the broader conservation effort in central Massachusetts. The 100-acre Wilson Lot was owned by Don Wilson, a long-time volunteer in the Fisher Museum and his nephew Bill, and the 68-acre Bryant Lot was owned by Richard Bryant, a retired carpenter who worked on many of the buildings at the Harvard Forest.

Both lots were initially purchased by Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust which worked with the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and the Department of Conservation and Recreation to sell conservation restrictions over each property with funding from the US Forest Service Forest Legacy Program before selling the restricted properties to the Harvard Forest. These were the first of 19 tracts, totaling over 2,000 acres to be protected by a $2.5 million grant from the Forest Legacy Program in the North Quabbin Region. The Harvard Forest received contributions from foundations and individuals to purchase the restricted forest lands.

These parcels are valuable additions to natural open space of the North Quabbin Region as they connect many blocks of protected land in this beautiful, forested part of the region and provide additional protection for the long term climate change research underway at the Harvard Forest.

New Publications from Harvard Forest

Von Holle & Motzkin (2007) examined how previous land use and current biotic and environmental properties influence the abundance and distribution of non-native plant species across coastal upland habitats of southern New England and adjacent New York. They found that the modern distribution of nonnative plants is influenced by multiple, interdependent current and historical factors. Open-canopy communities, such as grasslands, heath barrens and old fields had significantly greater numbers of nonindigenous plants. Additionally, soil calcium levels and native species richness were positively associated with nonnative species richness. Sites that were cultivated historically or experienced other soil disturbance had higher nonnative species richness than areas without soil disturbance. Last, glaciolacustrine landforms had greater nonnative species richness and cover than beach-dune, moraine, and glacial outwash sand plain landforms. Because many rare coastal sandplain plants reach their greatest abundance on extant open-canopied habitats that have historically been disturbed, efforts to restore rare native plants will involve tradeoffs between the benefits of expanded habitat for these species and increased risk of invasion by nonnative species.

Von Holle. B. and G. Motzkin. 2007. Historical land use and environmental determinants of nonnative plant distribution in coastal southern New England. Biological Conservation 136:33-43.

Neill et al. (2007) investigated the role of previous land use, disturbance, and overstory vegetation in controlling soil chemistry and native versus nonnative species composition. They found large differences in soil chemistry and a much higher proportion of nonindigenous species in agricultural grasslands compared with a variety of other sandplain vegetation types that had historically experienced different land uses. This suggests that restoring sandplain shrubland and grassland communities on agricultural lands might be a challenge, given their artificially high levels of soil nutrients and disturbed soils.

Neill, C. M., B. Von Holle, K. Kleese, K. Ivy, A. R. Colllins, C. Treat, and M. Dean. 2007. Historical influences on the vegetation and soils of the Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts coastal sandplain: Implications for conservation and restoration. Biological Conservation 136:17-32.

February 2007 Highlights

Harvard Forest Announces New Research Course

In response to a University-wide call to expand small group, experiential study in the sciences, the Harvard Forest will launch a new course and expand its summer research opportunities for Harvard Undergraduates this Spring. The new course, OEB 122 - Field Research in Ecology and Conservation, features hands-on field training and student research activities. Course highlights include:

• Participation in small discussion groups in Ecology and Conservation Biology while developing projects with individual members of the Harvard faculty.
• On-campus classes, field trips, and workshops at the Harvard Forest
• Readings of the scientific literature, formal training in field and lab techniques, and workshops on data analysis, presentation, and scientific writing.
• Multi-disciplinary topics and project in areas as varied as population and community ecology, paleoecology, land-use history, aquatic ecology, biochemistry, soil science, ecophysiology, and atmosphere-biosphere exchanges.
• Participating research mentors include from the Harvard Forest Director Dr. David Foster, researchers Dr. Aaron Ellison and Dr. Kristina Stinson, Faculty in the department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology: Drs. Missy Holbrook, Kathleen Donohue, and Paul Moorcroft and Earth and Planetary Sciences Dr. Steve Wofsy.
• The course runs both semesters. The spring course, OEB 122a, emphasizes field research methods and the fall course, OEB 122b, provides a formal structure and workshop setting for advanced data analysis, scientific writing, and presentation skills.

2007 Harvard Forest Summer Program in Ecology for Undergraduates

We are now accepting applications for the 2007 Summer Program from undergraduates and recent graduates who are interested in an intensive research and education experience in ecology. Applications Due March 7th. Learn more

Harvard Forest in the Media

WBUR Radio recently visited Petersham and interviewed two Harvard Forest scientists to discus the infestation of hemlock trees by the insect called hemlock woolly adelgid.

Listen to the Report: http://www.wbur.org/news/2007/63760_20070116.asp

The Harvard University Alumni Quarterly Colloquy highlights Harvard Forest as a living laboratory.

Read the article: http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/images/stories/pdfs/colloquy_winter07.pdf

New Journal Articles from the Harvard Forest

Climate Change affected major forest ecosystems dynamics

The mid-Holocene decline of eastern hemlock is widely viewed as the sole prehistorical example of an insect- or pathogen-mediated collapse of a North American tree species and has been extensively studied for insights into pest–host dynamics and the consequences to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of dominant-species removal. We report paleoecological evidence implicating climate as a major driver of this episode. Data drawn from sites across a gradient in hemlock abundance from dominant to absent demonstrate: a synchronous, dramatic decline in a contrasting taxon (oak); changes in lake sediments and aquatic taxa indicating low water levels; and one or more intervals of intense drought at regional to continental scales. These results, which accord well with emerging climate reconstructions, challenge the interpretation of a biotically driven hemlock decline and highlight the potential for climate change to generate major, abrupt dynamics in forest ecosystems.

Foster, D.R., W.W. Oswald, E.K. Faison, E.D. Doughty, B.C.S. Hansen. 2006. A Climatic Driver for Abrupt Mid-Holocene Vegetation Dynamics and the Hemlock Decline in New England. Ecology, 87(12), 2959–2966.

Old Growth Estimate in Massachusetts Revised

Old-growth forests are currently identified as core components of regional conservation and forest reserve planning efforts by agencies and organizations across the northeastern United States. Despite the importance of these ecosystems from an ecological and conservation standpoint, major questions remain concerning their actual extent, location, and configuration in many states. This paper reports a substantially revised estimate for individual tracts and the total area of old-growth forests in Massachusetts based on analysis of historical documents and extensive field research and mapping.

D’Amato, A.W., D. A. Orwig, and D. R. Foster. 2006. New Estimates of Massachusetts Old-growth Forests: Useful Data for Regional Conservation and Forest Reserve Planning. New England Naturalist. 13(4):495–506

Limits to Reproductive Success of Pitcher Plants

In this first experimental study of the relative contributions of resource and pollinator availability to reproductive success of the northern pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea, 2005 Bullard Fellow Gidi Ne'eman, his wife and high school biology teacher Rina Ne'eman, and Harvard Forest Senior Ecologist Aaron Ellison showed that resource supply dominates reproductive success in this plant. They also provided strong photographic evidence that the fly Fletcherimyia fletcheri pollinates the plant; its larvae is the top predator in the food web that inhabits the plant's water-filled pitchers. The results of this work point to an additional cost of carnivory for plants - reduced reproductive output - that needs to be considered along with reduced photosynthetic activity in determining the evolutionary history of carnivorous plants.

Ne'eman, G., R. Ne'eman, and A. M. Ellison. 2006. Limits to reproductive success of Sarracenia purpurea (Sarraceniaceae). American Journal of Botany 93: 1660-1666.

Cost-benefit model for evolution of carnivorous plants

The cost-benefit model for the evolution of carnivorous plants posits a trade-off between photosynthetic costs associated with carnivorous structures and photosynthetic benefits accrued through additional nutrient acquisition. The model predicts that carnivory is expected to evolve if its marginal benefits exceed its marginal costs. At the 2005 International Botanical Congress, Harvard Forest Senior Ecologist Aaron Ellison reviewed published data and results of ongoing research related to evaluating this cost-benefit model. His analysis shows that nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium often (co)-limit growth of carnivorous plants and that photosynthetic nutrient use efficiency is 20-50% of that of non-carnivorous plants. Assessments of stoichiometric relationships among limiting nutrients, scaling of leaf mass with photosynthesis and nutrient content, and photosynthetic nutrient use efficiency all suggest that carnivorous plants are at an energetic disadvantage relative to non-carnivorous plants in similar habitats. Overall, current data support some of the predictions of the cost-benefit model, fail to support others, and still others remain untested and merit future research. Rather than being an optimal solution to an adaptive problem, botanical carnivory may represent a set of limited responses constrained by both phylogenetic history and environmental stress.

Ellison, A.M. 2006. Nutrient limitation and stoichiometry of carnivorous plants. Plant Biology 8: 740-747.

January 2007 Highlights

New Funding for Global Change and Carbon Dynamics Research

The Terrestrial Carbon Program of the U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded approximately 1.5 million dollars for continued measurements of forest-atmosphere carbon exchange at Harvard Forest. A team of researchers from several departments at Harvard and from the State University of New York at Albany's Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (SUNY-ASRC), led by Bill Munger of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) at Harvard, will conduct the research. The award will support continuation of the world's longest-running continuous eddy flux measurements of carbon exchange (15 years so far) at Harvard Forest's Environmental Measurement Site (EMS). The new funding will also enable researchers to augment the current three-to-four year record of carbon exchange at the Hemlock and Little Prospect Hill tower sites. Continued work at these sites will increase the opportunity to discern influences of climate variability and forest growth on the carbon budgets of a relatively old (100-230 years) coniferous forest and a relatively young (< 60 years) deciduous forest.

The eddy flux technique estimates absorption or release of gases by terrestrial ecosystems, using movements of air between ecosystems and the atmosphere above them. However, the technique can only measure vertical gas exchange, or convection. A long-standing source of uncertainty is movement of gases through horizontal air motion, or advection. In tall-statured ecosystems such as forests, under calm conditions, movement of carbon dioxide (CO₂) through advection can be much greater than CO2 movement via convection.

David Fitzjarrald of SUNY-ASRC will quantify movement of CO₂ through advection, in order to improve carbon exchange estimates for the three flux tower sites. Bill Munger of Harvard EPS and Julian Hadley of Harvard Forest will derive the initial estimates from continuously-collected eddy flux data. Paul Moorcroft of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard will incorporate the data into the Ecosystem Demography model, which simulates forest growth and forest-atmosphere carbon exchange over long time intervals. Steve Wofsy of Harvard EPS will help to link forest carbon exchange estimates to changes in the atmosphere using the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System. Through the North American Carbon Program, data from all three sites will contribute to more accurate estimates of current annual carbon storage in North American forests, as well as better models for future forest carbon storage.

Harvard Forest Accepting Applications for Charles Bullard Fellows in Forest Research.

Applications for 2007-2008 now being accepted

The Charles Bullard Fellowship program, established in 1962, is to support advanced research and study by persons who show promise of making an important contribution, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry defined in its broadest sense as the human use of forested environments. Between five to eight distinguished practitioners and academics from across the United States and from around the globe spend one to two semesters based in Cambridge or at the Harvard Forest in Petersham conducting research on a particular field. While in residence at Harvard, Fellows, who are supported by an endowment named after the benefactor Charles Bullard, interact with faculty and students, give seminars, participate in conferences and symposia and avail themselves of the University's great research resources.

2007 Harvard Forest Summer Program in Ecology for Undergraduates

We are now accepting applications for the 2007 Summer Program from undergraduates and recent graduates who are interested in an intensive research and education experience in ecology. Learn more

Harvard Forest New Publication

Soil seed banks are especially important for forest regeneration in stands with few understory species and individuals. The understory of hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)-dominated stands in New England primarily consists of hemlock seedlings and saplings, but all size classes of hemlock are attacked by the hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae). Prior to the initiation of the Hemlock Removal Experiment at the Simes Tract, Harvard Extension student Kelley Sullivan (M.L.S. 2005) and Harvard Senior Ecologist Aaron Ellison examined the seed bank composition of all eight 0.81 ha experimental plots. The seed bank samples from the hemlock-dominated plots contained 24 species (95% confidence interval = 20-28), significantly fewer than the 30 found in the hardwood-dominated plots. Seed banks from all plots were dominated by black birch, raspberry, and sedges Among plots, there was little compositional relationship between the forest overstory and its understory on the one hand, and its seed bank on the other hand. Because seeds of hemlock and birch persist for only a few years in the seed bank, and because hemlock seedlings are readily attacked and killed by the adelgid, damaged hemlock stands are more likely to be replaced by stands of black birch and other hardwoods than by hemlock.

Sullivan, K.A., and A.M. Ellison. 2006. The seed bank of hemlock forests: implications for forest regeneration following hemlock decline. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 133: 393-402.

December 2006 Highlights

Director Receives New England Wild Flower Society Conservation Award

David Foster, Director of Harvard Forest, received the 2006 New England Wild Flower Society Massachusetts State Conservation Award. He was honored for guiding the development of Harvard Forest from a small academic outpost to a major research site and for changing the way biologists interpret landscape patterns and ecological processes. The award emphasized Dr. Foster's committment to revitalizing Harvard Forest to become a major site of long term ecological research activity, and for promoting conservation of hatibitats through Wildands and Woodlands project.

2007 Harvard Forest Summer Program in Ecology for Undergraduates

We are now accepting applications for the 2007 Summer Program from undergraduates and recent graduates who are interested in an intensive research and education experience in ecology. Learn more

"Green" Garage designed and built at Harvard Forest

The building was designed and built entirely by the Harvard Forest woods crew using Harvard Forest wood products wherever possible. It is also, at the initiative of the crew, a "green building". This includes the composting toilet, a dual fuel wood/oil burner, and reusing materials from previous renovations. They also took the lead in submitting a grant to the state for a solar power system to provide about 8% of the electrical needs for all the Prospect Hill research projects which will be installed in the spring. Finally, the auto repair bay was also moved to this new location removing it from the proximity of the water supply for the Forest. There are many other features such as secured hazardous waste storage and a loft for research materials storage, and numerous others. The integration and understanding of the woods crew for the mission of the Harvard Forest is reflected in the design and intended use of the new building.

Report Outlines Funding to Conserve Half of Massachusetts’s Land

Harvard Forest’s “Wildlands and Woodlands” proposal to conserve roughly half of Massachusetts as protected lands has received a boost from a new report detailing seven strategies to finance the ambitious proposal. The ne