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For a long time, botanists have known that freeze-thaw cycles in spring determine sap flow in maple trees. Sugar content in the sap also varies from year to year, but less is known about why. One possibility is that plants only have so much sugar to go around, so years when trees make lots of seeds are followed by years

From September 2011 to January 2012, European graduate students Anne-Céline Granjon (France) and Nicky Lustenhouwer
(Netherlands) conducted research at Harvard Forest as part of a collaboration between Harvard University and the Erasmus Mundus Master Programme in Evolutionary Biology (www.evobio.eu). Anne-Céline worked with HF ecologist Kristina Stinson, focusing on the response of common ragweed to climate change. She studied the

Abrupt ecosystem transitions--major changes brought on when a critical environmental threshold is passed (such the abrupt shift from an oligotropic lake (clear blue) to a eutrophic lake (muddy green))--can significantly and irreversibly alter an ecosystem. Although such shifts are a major concern in this time of rapid environmental change, short-term data constraints have thus far prevented a common understanding of

A comprehensive manual for the identification of native and naturalized plants of New England has recently been published by Yale University Press and is available for purchase at the Harvard Forest at a discounted rate. With more than 1,000 pages of plant information researched and written by Arthur Haines, and 945 illustrations by Gordon Morrison and Harvard Forest Research Associate