Carbon

May 26, 2022

Summer Interns Arrive to Pursue 11-Week Research Projects

2022 Harvard Forest Summer Research Program students and mentors

Last weekend, during an unseasonable heat wave, 20 undergraduate interns arrived from institutions all over the US to move into Harvard Forest's largest dorm. Thus began their 11-week Summer Research Program internships, during which they will pursue mentored team projects on topics ranging from amplifying Indigenous voices in STEM to understanding controls on forest carbon sequestration.

The program, now

August 12, 2021

Study: For Trees, Carbs Are Key to Surviving Insect Defoliation

close-up of Lymantria dispar caterpillar

A study published today in Functional Ecology by HF Senior Ecologist Audrey Barker Plotkin and colleagues sheds light on why some oak trees in our region survived a recent severe outbreak of invasive moth, and some did not. The key? Carbohydrates.

The new study reveals the specific threshold of reserves necessary for the trees to survive: 1.5 percent carbohydrates

April 15, 2021

4 Students Earn Graduate Research Awards; New Award Apps Due May 1

In fall 2020, four graduate students were selected to receive the first-ever Graduate Research Awards in the Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research Program. The awardees were selected based on the quality of their research proposals, and the potential of their projects to leverage existing HF LTER research and create new LTER collaborations.

Each student presented the results of their work

November 18, 2020

December 15 Webinar to Highlight Benefits of Forest Conservation

View from Lions Head in Connecticut, part of the Appalachian Trail, showing a mosaic of hills, forests, and farms in autumn. Photo by John Burk.

“Saying Yes to Wildlands AND Woodlands” will feature leaders representing wilderness conservation and responsible forestry, discussing how both strategies can work together to address the climate crisis.

The subject of forest conservation will be center stage in a webinar on December 15 from 4-5:30 featuring Bob Perschel, Executive Director of the New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF), and Jon Leibowitz,

August 4, 2020

Study: In a Warming World, New England’s Trees Are Storing More Carbon

Senior ecologist Audrey Barker Plotkin works with student researchers Collette Yee and Kate Eisen to measure trees in a long-term Harvard Forest study plot. Photo by Moshe Roberts.

A new study in Ecological Monographs synthesizes hundreds of thousands of carbon observations collected over the last quarter century at the Harvard Forest, following the complex stream of carbon through the forest's air, soil, plants, and water. The scope of the study - as well as its consistency of results - is unprecedented.

The study reveals that the rate at

May 30, 2020

Harper's Features HF Research in Warming Soil

A vibrant feature in Harper's Magazine digs into the Forest's long-term soil warming experiment and the many climate questions scientists are exploring there. The story was written by graduating Harvard senior Drew Pendergrass, who spent a day at Harvard Forest and many subsequent hours interviewing scientists as part of a Harvard science writing course taught by Michael

October 3, 2019

NYT Op-Ed Poses Wood Building & Forest Conservation as Climate Solutions

An op-ed in the New York Times, co-authored by Harvard Forest director David Foster, points to new forest management standards, increases in wood building projects, and protection of existing forests from development as untapped climate solutions in New England and around the world.

The piece was written with colleagues Frank Lowenstein from the New England Forestry Foundation and

July 19, 2019

Registration Open for Schoolyard Ecology Teacher Workshop

Two children looking at a clipboard and holding a stick.

Schoolteachers of grades 2-12 are invited to register for the Summer Institute for Teachers, held here at Harvard Forest on August 22 from 9:30am to 3:30pm. The cost is $50, which includes teacher materials, project supplies, and year-round support from educators and scientists at the Forest.

The Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology Program, now in its 16th year, works with teachers

June 10, 2019

New Grant: Gypsy Moth, Carbon Storage, and Tree Mortality

A Harvard Forest-led research team has received a $99,000 Rapid Response Research grant from the National Science Foundation to study the factors underlying widespread oak tree mortality across southern New England in the wake of an ongoing, multi-year outbreak of invasive gypsy moth.

It has been more than thirty years since gypsy moth has caused such a high level of tree

February 28, 2019

Study: Decades of Tree Rings Extend Today's High-Tech Climate Stories

Satellite imagery, carbon dioxide measurements, and computer models all help scientists understand how climate and carbon dynamics are changing in the world’s forests. But the technology powering these high-tech data only stretches back about thirty years, limiting our picture of long-term change.

A new study in Nature Communications co-authored by HF Senior Ecologist Neil Pederson with scientists from Columbia University,

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