Biodiversity Studies

Detailed inventories of species diversity at the Harvard Forest provide core data to guide studies of physiological ecology, population dynamics, and community ecology. In short, if we don't know what species we have, we have no way to assess their role in ecosystem dynamics. Species inventories also provide benchmarks for determining the impacts of climate change on distributions of and interactions among species. Experimental manipulations complement observational studies to allow rapid assessment of environmental change on plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria in our forests.