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July 1, 2008

New Harvard Forest Publication: The Effect of Logging in Western Massachusetts

Forest harvesting is one of the most significant disturbances affecting forest plant composition and structure in eastern North American forests, yet few studies have quantified the landscape-scale effects of widespread, low-intensity harvests by non-industrial private forest owners. Using spatially explicit data on all harvests over the last 20 years, we sampled the vegetation at 126 sites throughout central and western

July 1, 2008

Harvard Forest Receives Safe Drinking Water Award

Harvard Forest recently was awarded the Massachusetts Public Drinking Water Award, which recognizes public water systems Safe Drinking Water Awardfor outstanding performance. In a ceremony at the State House, MassDEP Commissioner Laurie Burt presented the award to Michael Scott, Edythe Ellin, and Ronald May. Winning systems were determined based on their compliance with

July 1, 2008

Harvard Forest Schoolyard Program Featured in the News

Greenfield Schoolyard HWA

HF ecologist David Orwig's work with the Schoolyard Ecology project "Hemlock Trees and the Pesky Pest, the Woolly Adelgid" was featured on the front page of the Greenfield Recorder recently. The article described Greenfield High School students' and teacher Christine Perham's experience with invasive species research in Greenfield.

July 1, 2008

New Harvard Forest Publication: Invasive Plant Study (Garlic Mustard)

Invasive Plant Study

Previous work at the Harvard Forest has shown that mycorrhizal fungi of herbaceous plants are inhibited by the invasion of garlic mustard. In this paper, researchers at the Harvard Forest, the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, and at Boston University demonstrate that ectomycorrhizal

June 1, 2008

New Harvard Forest Publications: Nutrient Transformation and Bacterial Diversity in Pitcher Plants

In April's Ecology, former research assistant Jess Butler and her co-authors Nick Gotelli (University of Vermont) and Aaron Ellison (Harvard Forest Senior Ecologist) reported the surprising finding that the complex food web of macroinvertebrates inhabiting leaves of the pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea contribute little to the nutrient budget of this carnivorous plant. Rather, bacteria provide the key link between the

June 1, 2008

Harvard Undergraduate Thesis on Garlic Mustard, an Invasive Plant

Dunbar Nathan Carpenter (Harvard '08) has completed his Senior Thesis in Biology, "Regional and Historical Influences on Exotic Plant Invasions - The Ecological Drivers of Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) Invasion in Western Massachusetts". This work draws upon research initiated in the Harvard Forest Summer Program investigating the ecological and historical factors driving the distribution

June 1, 2008

Harvard Forest On The Air

Schoolyard Ecology Program Honored

Phenology studentThe Schoolyard Ecology program at Harvard Forest was featured on WBZ-TV in Boston and 3 of our Schoolyard Ecology teachers were honored at the State House for Excellence in Environmental Education. Tewksbury High School teacher, Elaine Senechal and her students along with Harvard Forest Ecologist John O'Keefe made an

June 1, 2008

Interns Arrive for Summer Program in Ecology

Summer 2008 interns

Twenty-three summer students have arrived as part of the Harvard Forest summer research program in ecology. Students come from all over the United States to participate in on-going research projects investigating atmospheric pollution, global warming, invasive plants, watershed ecology, and insect outbreaks. Researchers come from many disciplines and institutions. Specific projects center on population and community ecology, plant physiology, insect

May 1, 2008

New Harvard Forest Publication: Ecosystem Response to Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Infestation

Forest ecologist David Orwig, along with several former and current Harvard Forest collaborators, examined the magnitude of ecosystem response associated with 3 years of hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) infestation in southern New England hemlock forests. The study, published in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research, shows that infested forests had significantly higher HWA-induced foliar loss and significantly lower forest floor

May 1, 2008

New Harvard Forest Publication: Impact of Climate Change on Terrestrial Over-Wintering Birds

This study investigates the impact of the increasing average winter temperatures and habitat modification on winter populations of terrestrial birds in Massachusetts, based on Christmas Bird Count (CBC) data recorded annually by volunteers for the National Audubon Society. The large archival database of records for birds' species in their winter range was used to examine whether bird species are extending

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