Edward Faison, David Foster, Wyatt Oswald

Harvard Forest

Primary Interests:

Land use history, paleoecology

HWA Objective:

We are studying the post-glacial history of hemlock in New England. One of the major reasons for undertaking this project is to put the current HWA-hemlock situation into a meaningful historical context. By studying the Holocene dynamics of Tsuga, including the region-wide hemlock decline of 4800-3500 BP, we are better equipped to address difficult questions today regarding the impacts of HWA, such as: 1. how reduced will hemlock become on the New England landscape; 2. how long will it take hemlock to recover from this infestation; 3. are certain physiographic areas more susceptible to the decline than others; and 4. how will the transition-hardwoods forest be altered as a result of hemlock's decline. We are using a combination of paleoecological records (both from our own cores in Massachusetts and those from the North American Pollen Database), historical data (maps, documents, and witness tree data), and modern vegetation records to conduct this study.