Climate Change

September 2, 2014

Long-Term Insights on Soil Carbon

Unraveling the complex functions of the soil ecosystem has been a research focus at the Harvard Forest for over 20 years. Results from our Detritus Input Removal Treatment (DIRT) experiment were highlighted this month by the Soil Science Society of America.

Soils are a globally important reservoir of carbon, containing three times more carbon than the

June 19, 2014

Celebrating 10 Years of Hands-On Science with Local Classrooms

This summer, the Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology Program will celebrate 10 years of science education in 70 schools across New England. Each year, our program brings more than 3,500 students outside to collect and analyze field data in schools' backyards.

Our 10th annual Summer Institute for Teachers will be held on August 21. All teachers of grades 4-12

June 6, 2014

Study: Forests Are Storing More Carbon with Earlier Springs

New research in Nature Climate Change, based on over 20 years of ground and air measurements at the Harvard Forest, gives new insight into the crucial climate benefits that eastern forests provide. As warming has brought earlier springs and later autumns to our region over the past 20 years, forest trees have been able to store as much

May 27, 2014

New SPE Study: Rules on Carbon Emissions Benefit People & the Environment

On June 2, the EPA released the nation’s first-ever carbon pollution standards for existing power plants. In a new report by the Science Policy Exchange, scientists from Syracuse and Harvard analyze how and where that rule will improve local air quality, decrease atmospheric deposition, and benefit people and ecosystems across the U.S.

The authors of the study, including

April 21, 2014

Earth Day of the Future: NSF Features Long-Term Research

This winter, Harvard Forest's Changes to the Land report was one of six research studies featured in the National Science Foundation's 2014 mini-symposium on Long-Term Ecological Research. These studies have now been highlighted for Earth Day in a new NSF Discovery article on cutting-edge research into the coming decades of environmental change.

Browse the NSF article

April 15, 2014

Study: Climate Legacy in Eastern Old-Growth Forests

A new study released this week in Ecological Monographs, led by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory ecologist Neil Pederson in collaboration with Harvard Forest ecologist Dave Orwig and others, highlights the fundamental shifts and lasting legacy left by climate events like drought, even in the rainy eastern U.S.

An analysis of tree rings spanning more than 300,000 square

March 21, 2014

Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the Edge

A new book, Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the Edge, edited by Harvard Forest director David Foster and co-authored by seven Harvard Forest research colleagues, is now available from Yale University Press. In a narrative that spans millennia of ecological change, the authors reflect on eastern hemlock's irreplaceable value to human culture, ecosystems, and scientific research.

The

April 2, 2014

Species Conservation in a Shifting Global Context

Threatened species are further jeopardized by shifts in political boundaries, warns Harvard Forest senior ecologist Aaron Ellison in a new Worldview column in the top journal Nature. "Only laws and statutes protect biodiversity," he writes, "and these differ on either side of nearly every border." Citing examples of endangered bears, butterflies, and birds in politically fluctuating

March 10, 2014

Bullard Spotlight: Franco Biondi and Reconstructions of Environmental Change

Each month, we feature research by one of Harvard Forest's Charles Bullard Fellows. This month, we're highlighting Franco Biondi, a Professor in the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. During his 2014 Bullard Fellowship at Harvard Forest, he's completing a book on dendrochronology, in which he discusses tree-ring methods for

February 18, 2014

Tracking Seasonal Change Using Digital Photography

A growing number of researchers, including Harvard Forest collaborator Andrew Richardson, are using automated digital cameras to study seasonal change in the forest canopy. As climate warms, the timing of leaf emergence in the spring and leaf-drop in autumn are in rapid flux, increasing scientists' need to precisely pinpoint and follow these seasonal changes.

In a new

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