You are here

Home » News & Events

All News & Highlights

Printer-friendly version
January 22, 2018

Data from Art: Hemlock Hospice Starts Yielding Results

Hemlock Hospice Wordle

Based on the visitor log at the Harvard Forest Hemlock Hospice art exhibition, more than 500 people have viewed its 18 installations since the October 7 opening. Many of these visitors also have contributed to the exhibition by leaving messages on ribbons tied to the "Exchange Tree."Trees are Wise Message Now,

January 16, 2018

Reproducibility in Ecological Research

Figure from Nature Ecology and Evolution

How can we improve the reproducibility of ecological experiments? In a paper published this month in Nature Ecology and Evolution, an international team led by Alex Milcu that included HF Senior Ecologist Aaron Ellison showed that a deliberate introduction of controlled systematic variability (CSV) in experimental designs may increase the reproducibility of experiments done at multiple sites

January 11, 2018

New Book About Carnivorous Plants

Front Cover Carnivorous Plants, edited by Aaron Ellison

Researchers from around the world, led by HF Senior Ecologist Aaron Ellison, have just published a major scientific synthesis on the physiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology of carnivorous plants.

Until now, there have only been three major scientific treatments of what Charles Darwin called “the most wonderful plants in the world.” Darwin himself wrote the first one

December 11, 2017

Boston Globe Features Hemlock Hospice Art Installation

Fast Forward - Hemlock Hospice Installation by David Buckley Borden

Harvard Forest and its Hemlock Hospice Art Installation was recently highlighted in the Boston Globe. The exhibit's elegy to the hemlock is described by Renée Loth in this excerpt: 

"Part sculpture, part pedagogy, part citizen science, the project speaks largely in artistic metaphor. But the popular Black Gum trail really is off-limits to the public, because its towering eastern hemlock trees

December 4, 2017

2018 Undergraduate Summer Research Program

2016 Summer Student Alex Widstrand inspects the above-canopy tram. Photo by Lauren Ebels.

Applications are now open for the 2018 Harvard Forest Summer Research Program, an opportunity for college and university students across the U.S. to participate in 11 weeks (May 21-August 3, 2018) of paid, independent research with mentors from Harvard and other leading institutions.

2018 research projects cover many academic disciplines, including ecology, biogeochemistry, computer science, conservation, history, and engineering.
Research

October 25, 2017

New Insights on Forests in a Changing Climate

A map of New England.

How will climate change affect New England forests over the next century? According to a series of new studies from HF Senior Ecologist Jonathan Thompson's lab, the answer is a mixed bag. In some respects, climate will exert an even greater impact than we thought: longer growing seasons will mean more tree growth and carbon storage. In other ways, climate

October 24, 2017

Conservation Leader to Offer Public Seminar

A landscape that includes trees, mountains and fog.

On November 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the Fisher Museum, national conservation leader Rand Wentworth will offer a free public seminar on best practices for leadership in the complex process of conserving land. The event is open to the public, and especially geared towards community leaders, landowners, conservationists, and students.

Wentworth is the Louis Bacon Senior Fellow in

October 6, 2017

Study: Warmer Forest Soils Release More Carbon, Accelerating Future Warming

Harvard Forest soil warming plots.

A new study in the journal Science reports on 26 years of data from the world’s longest-running forest soil warming experiment, based at the Harvard Forest since 1991. It suggests that in a warming world, a self-reinforcing and perhaps uncontrollable carbon feedback will occur between forest soils and the climate system, adding to the build-up of atmospheric

September 28, 2017

Pits and Mounds: Diminished Elements in a Second-Growth Landscape

Birch trees growing on a withdrawn root mound.

Pits and mounds might be considered the charismatic microtopography of the forest. These features, vividly nicknamed 'pillows and cradles,' are formed by the uprooting of trees. In most forests, these features contribute important habitat diversity while varying soil processes. A new study in the journal Forest Ecology & Management, led by HF senior scientist Audrey Barker

September 19, 2017

New Report: Forests, Funding, and Conservation in Decline across New England

A report titled "Woodlands,Farmlands and Communities"

The Harvard Forest, Highstead, and authors from around New England have released a new report called “Wildlands and Woodlands, Farmlands and Communities," which broadens a 2010 Harvard Forest vision for conservation to permanently protect forests and farmlands as natural infrastructure that sustains both people and nature in the region. 

The report was released to the

Pages