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2009 Seminar Schedule
Previous Highlights
Current Weather
39oF, 4oC at 7:15am
Events at Harvard Forest
test
Solar energy output
Research and Education in Ecology, Conservation and Forest Biology
November Highlights
New Outreach & Development Manager for Harvard Forest
A new position at Harvard Forest--Outreach and Development Manager for Education and Research Programs--has been filled by Clarisse Hart, who has been a research assistant at the Forest since 2007. In addition to her background in ecological research, Clarisse brings to this position a master’s degree in nonfiction writing and publishing, as well as years of experience in informal science education and higher ed administration. Her first tasks will be to coordinate the production of a new conservation science publication, to increase the visibility of Harvard Forest through press and media releases, to deepen the Forest’s connections with the main Harvard campus, and to oversee several new initiatives in outreach and education for the local community.
New NSF Funding to Study the Catastrophic Mortality of Oak Forests on Martha’s Vineyard
Five thousand years ago, New England forests experienced a tumultuous upheaval. Across the region’s interior occurred an abrupt and massive decline of hemlock, a dominant tree that was replaced by hardwood species. Simultaneously, on Cape Cod and the Islands, oak experienced heavy mortality and was replaced by beech. The driver of these coincident changes was climate change to warmer conditions and periods of severe drought. How did other species and people respond? How did the forests recover from these events? And how did the sudden replacement of one dominant tree species by another with very different characteristics affect forest ecosystem processes? Answers to these questions are elusive and yet would provide important information about basic ecological processes. They might also yield critical insights for us today in a world that is subjected to rapid changes due to climate change and outbreaks of introduced and native pests and pathogens.
It was with these questions in mind that Harvard Forest Researchers – David Foster, Dave Orwig, Aaron Ellison, Jonathan Thompson, Wyatt Oswald and Audrey Barker Plotkin – are applying a $100,000 grant from NSF to study the catastrophic death of oaks in forests on Martha’s Vineyard. The funds come from a special RAPID fund at NSF. Following three years of defoliation across the island, primarily by the native Fall Cankerworm, and a severe drought in the third year, many tens of thousands of oaks died abruptly. The researchers began their studies this summer, hosted by the Polly Hill Arboretum, and will investigate the pattern and cause of the mortality the nature of the dead forest, and the short and long-term changes to forest ecosystems.
Read recent Boston Globe and Martha’s Vineyard Gazette coverage of this research and study.
The Heat is On
The Warm Ants staff is pleased to announce that the heat has been turned on in the open-top chambers! The aim of the project is to examine the impacts of climate change on ant community composition and ant-mediated ecosystem processes. This project is replicated at Duke Forest, allowing a comparison of climate change impacts on ant ecology at broad geographic scales. The project is funded by the US Department of Energy and led by PIs Aaron Ellison, Rob Dunn (North Carolina State University), Nick Gotelli (U Vermont), Nate Sanders (U Tennessee) and postdoctoral associate Shannon Pelini. Website: http://openwetware.org/wiki/Warm_Ants.
Harvard Forest in the News
A recent article in Smithsonian Magazine featured the Asian Longhorned Beetle with references to Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, Harvard Forest and Harvard Forest Director, David Foster. Read the article.
Harvard Forest at 2009 All Scientists Meeting
Harvard Forest was well represented at the 2009 All Scientists Meeting, held at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado from September 13 to the 17th. Highlights of HF participation included:
Working Group Presentations:
- David Foster and Jonathan Thompson led at the Scenarios of Future Landscape Change working group.
- David Foster and former HF Bullard, Jill Thompson presented at the Large Forest Dynamics Plot workshop
- Emery Boose and Pamela Snow shared the HF data management system at the Approaches to Information Management for Schoolyard LTER data working group.
- Shannon Pellini co-led an Invertebrate impacts on ecosystem services under climate change workshop with Chelse Prather (U Notre Dame) and Angela Laws (Kansas State University).