Soil and Microbial Science at Harvard Forest

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 soil temperature, the role of microbes in ecosystem function, and fungal demography and community structure. Nearly 60 researchers attended the symposium, which may become an annual event. The event was well-timed with the recent donation of 70 years of records from the Northeastern Forest Soils Conference (1938-2007), now cataloged and available for study in the Harvard Forest Archive.