October 2011

Harvard Forest researchers have nearly finished a major forest census begun in summer 2010 on a 35-hectare "mega-plot" on Prospect Hill. The mega-plot is part of a global array of plots to explore ecosystem processes, jointly established by CTFS and Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum and recently expanded by the Smithsonian Institution's Global Earth Observatory (SIGEO). Ecologist

A new paper by Harvard Forest Postdoc Sydne Record describes plant species associated with a regionally rare hemiparasitic plant, Swamp Lousewort (Pedicularis lanceolata), across its geographic range. Sydne performed this research as part of her dissertation work with Harvard Forest Senior Research Ecologist Aaron Ellison. See the full article published in Rhodora. 

Last month, Harvard Forest hosted its first Microbial Ecology Symposium, organized by Harvard Forest collaborator Serita Frey, a UNH biologist. The full day included talks and posters from senior scientists in the Harvard Forest LTER program (Stinson, Frey, Melillo, Ellison, Tang), as well as post-docs, graduate students and undergraduates (including a summer 2011 REU student). Topics included microbial responses to

Harvard Forest ecologists Elizabeth Crone, Josh Rapp and Keala Cummings recently visited Oulanka National Park in northeastern Finland to study how changes in forest cover and river flow affect forest wildflower populations. Their collaborator, Dr. Anne Jäkäläniemi, a botanist with the Finnish Forest and Park Service, will be in residence at Harvard Forest through the end of October. In addition