Student Symposium and Video on Deep Forest History

33 Summer REU students presented findings from their research projects at a Symposium in the Fisher Museum. Several students had continued large-scale research projects that have been operating for many years at Harvard Forest. Others helped with experiments that were in their first year, but that are expected to continue long into the future. These students learned a lot about the value of collecting baseline data so that future researchers will be able to detect changes in their plots. Still other projects addressed more computational and technological advances in the field of ecology. One student used GIS to study distribution of an invasive species; others placed cameras on forest towers to detect changes in phenology, and another student developed models and simulations to learn about climate change.

Two students represented the social sciences and presented results from a survey distributed to 1,000 landowners in Vermont and New Hampshire. And, another student produced a documentary film about paleoecology, which, among other uses, will be incorporated into the Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology program, where local schoolteachers and students conduct ecological research in their schoolyards.

Watch the student film: