Many of us have experienced a restorative walk in the woods. But does associating with trees really make us any healthier? After investigating the loss of some 100 million ash trees in the Eastern and Midwestern United States, Forest Service researcher Geoffrey Donovan and his colleagues suspect that the answer is yes.
Bubbling brooks and streams are a scenic and much loved feature of forest ecosystems, but long-term data at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest suggests that more productive forests might carry considerably less water.
Harvard botanist Dr. Peter Del Tredici discusses how northeastern forests are being shaped by urbanization, invasive species, acid rain, and climate change.
Following an exhaustive review of more than fifty years of long term data on environmental conditions at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the results are clear: spring is advancing and fall is retreating.
Hemlock is a "foundation" tree species in eastern forests and its presence defines the properties of a unique ecosystem that is presently declining due to the introduction and spread of an invasive insect, the hemlock woolly adelgid.
We are analyzing how changes in soil base status can influence microbial physiology, organic matter quality, and microbial activity in northern hardwood forests at Hubbard Brook.
We measure key aspects of forest productivity, species composition and nutrient cycling in the mixed-oak forest at Cary. This long-term monitoring allows us to track trends in the forest ecosystem resulting from air pollution and other stresses.
In deciduous and coniferous forests dominated by mast-producing trees, such as oaks, consumers are confronted with the sporadic production of abundant resources. Mast-consuming animals, such as the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) and eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus), rely on these pulsed resources.
This project is focused on the consequences of the invasion of the beech bark disease (BBD) in northern hardwood forests, which dominate the uplands of the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada.
This project is primarily focused on understanding the ecology and nutrient cycling of Catskill forests and the responses of the forests to stresses such as air pollution and introduced pests.
Stabilizing a deer population requires a balance between annual recruitment and mortality. For a population reduction, mortality must exceed recruitment. Using hunting as our primary management tool, our hunters are required to focus their efforts on culling females as well as males.
Presently, hunter observations are used as the technique to assess if Cary controlled hunts are stabilizing local deer numbers. Night spotlight counts of deer have been used to index trends in abundance in the past. The observations of deer by bow hunters, has yielded data that have correlated very well with spotlighting numbers with the observation data easier and less expensive to obtain.
Since 1983, Mr. Winchcombe has been monitoring the intensity of deer browsing on the major tree species on the Cary Institute's grounds. Browsing intensity varies annually, with over-winter browsing linked to total winter snowfall amounts. Browsing studies help govern deer management strategies, with heavy browsing highlighting the need to further reduce local deer numbers.
In the northern hardwood forests in New Hampshire we are analyzing how soil freezing events cause root and microbial mortality, which can lead to increased rates of N and P mineralization and loss.
