North Quabbin Region - Central Massachussets
The Harvard Forest and town of Petersham lie in the center of a 19-town area known as the North Quabbin Region. This nearly 170,000-ha area bounded by New Hampshire (N), CT Valley (W), Quabbin Reservoir (S), provides a cross-section of the forested, rural, and urban landscape that characterizes western Massachusetts. The region provides an important focus for research on regional processes that affect the Harvard Forest. It also serves as a moderate-sized testing area for potential statewide studies. Over the past decade the region has been the focus of intense conservation activity and has been designated as a Bioreserve by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Therefore ecological and conservation studies of this region can important provide useful applied information as well as fundamental insights.
Selected Publications
Motzkin, G., D. Foster, A. Allen, K. Donohue, and P. Wilson. 2004. Forest landscape patterns, structure and composition. Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1000 Years of Change in New England. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Fuller, J., D. R. Foster, G. Motzkin, J. McLachlan, and S. Barry. 2004. Broad-scale forest response to land-use and climate change. Pp. 101-124 In D. Foster and J. Aber (Eds.), Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1000 Years of Change in New England. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Foster, D. and J. Aber. (Eds) 2004. Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1000 Years of Change in New England . Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Compton, J. and R. Boone. 2004. Land-use legacies on soil properties and nutrients. Pp. 189-201 In D. Foster and J. Aber (Eds.), Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1000 Years of Change in New England. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Motzkin, G., S. C. Ciccarello, and D. R. Foster. 2002. Frost pockets on a level sand plain: does variation in microclimate help maintain persistent vegetation. patterns? Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society. 129: 154-163
Gerhardt, F. and D. R. Foster. 2002. Physiographic and historical effects on forest vegetation in central New England, USA. Journal of Biogeography 29: 1421-1437
Donohue, K., D. R. Foster, and G. Motzkin. 2000. Effects of the past and the present on species distributions: land-use history and demography of wintergreen. Journal of Ecology 88: 303-316
Lavelle, N. 1999. Effects of 1996-97 winter storms on pine and mixed hardwoods on the Montague sand plain in central Massachusetts. BA Thesis, Mt. Holyoke College
Motzkin, G. and D. R. Foster. 1998. How land use determines vegetation: evidence from a New England sandplain. Arnoldia 58: 32-34
Fuller, J. L., D. R. Foster, J. S. McLachlan, and N. Drake. 1998. Impact of human activity on regional forest composition and dynamics in central New England. Ecosystems 1: 76-95
Foster, D., G. Motzkin, and B. Slater. 1998. Land-use history as long-term broad-scale disturbance: regional forest dynamics in central New England. Ecosystems 1: 96-119
Compton, J. E., R. D. Boone, G. Motzkin, and D. R. Foster. 1998. Soil carbon and nitrogen in a pine-oak sand plain in central Massachusetts: role of vegetation and land-use history. Oecologia 116: 536-542
Golodetz, A. and D. R. Foster. 1997. History and importance of land use and protection in the North Quabbin Region of Massachusetts. Conservation Biology 11: 227-235
Ciccarello, S. C. 1997. A study of the effects of microclimate on leaf phenology of scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia) on Montague Plain. MS Thesis, Antioch New England Graduate School
Motzkin, G., D. R. Foster, A. Allen, J. Harrod, and R. D. Boone. 1996. Controlling site to evaluate history: vegetation patterns of a New England sand plain. Ecological Monographs 66: 345-365
Golodetz, A. 1993. Historical patterns of land protection in north-central Massachusetts: the emergence of a greenway. Senior Thesis, Hampshire College
Gerhardt, F. 1993. Physiographic and historical influences of forest composition in central New England, U.S.A. MFS Thesis, Harvard
Whitney, G. G. 1991. Relation of plant species to substrate, landscape position, and aspect in north central Massachusetts. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 21: 1245-1252
Whitney, G. G. and D. R. Foster. 1988. Overstorey composition and age as determinants of the understorey flora of central New England's woods. Journal of Ecology 76: 867-876