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.