Connecticut Valley
As a result of its geological, biological and human history the Connecticut Valley supports environments and vegetation communities that are distinctly different from those occurring in the surrounding upland regions. These habitats support an array of distinctive and unusual plant and animal assemblages that are a major regional and national focus for conservation. For more than a decade Harvard Forest researchers have utilized a combination of historical, soils, and ecological studies to understand the diverse landscapes and communities in the Valley and their dynamics in relationship to the area's history.
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.
Motzkin, G. and D. Foster. 2004. Insights for ecology and conservation. 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. R. and G. Motzkin. 2003. Interpreting and conserving the openland habitats of coastal New England: insights from landscape history. Forest Ecology and Management 185: 127-150.
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.
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.
Compton, J. E. and R. Boone. 2000. Long-term impacts of agriculture on soil carbon and nitrogen in New England forests. Ecology 81: 2314-2330.
Motzkin, G., W. A. I. Patterson, and D. R. Foster. 1999. A historical perspective on pitch pine-scrub oak communities in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts. Ecosystems 2: 255-273.
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. R. and G. Motzkin. 1998. Ecology and conservation in the cultural landscape of New England: lessons from nature's history. Northeastern Naturalist 5: 111-126.
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.
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.
Motzkin, G. 1995. Inventory of uncommon plant communities of western Massachusetts: 1993-1994. Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, Boston 40 + appendices (Report submitted to the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program).