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Forests are crucial for mitigating the effects of climate change and providing ecosystem services. Global deforestation trends coupled with changing climate and intensifying disturbance regimes threaten the capacity of forests to sequester carbon and regulate other ecosystem processes.

The resilience of tropical forests under changing climate and disturbance regimes is a critical uncertainty of predicting the future fates of terrestrial biosphere.

Increases in temperature and vapor pressure deficits, along with shifting precipitation regimes, have broad but substantial effects on ecological function and productivity. Of the processes most impacted, gas exchange, stomatal conductance (GS), and leaf water potential (ΨL) are some of the most complex to predict.

Data sharing, code review, open access, preprints, preregistration, registered reports, reproducibility, replicability: all these terms fall under the umbrella of the ‘open science’ movement, which aims to make science more reliable and efficient.

Avoidance behavior represents a powerful first defense for hosts in their repertoire of strategies to fight parasites. Most research on avoidance behavior has asked how parasite avoidance trades off with other aspects of animals’ ecology, including predator avoidance or resource acquisition.

Paulo Bernardino is a plant ecologist who studies local to regional scale ecosystem dynamics through the combined use of field data, remote sensing techniques, and advanced time series analysis.

Whether it’s pulling up water chestnuts in the Hudson River, or searching out vernal pools—citizens can play a vital role in scientific research.

Talks at the conference highlighted just how much good information we’ve been able to collect over the past few decades about the Hudson, and how widely that information has been used to manage the river. We know where the sturgeon spawn and overwinter; how many acres of plant beds are in the river, how that acreage has been affected by storms, and how valuable those plant beds are to fishes and other animals.

Get to know and identify butterflies and skippers common to the Hudson Valley, along with the native plants they depend on.

Over the course of a three-year project, Cary scientists will map how carbon is distributed across the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge’s forests and soils, identify areas at highest risk of burning, and help fill in other data gaps to inform fire suppression strategies. The project will inform decision making around using fire suppression to protect carbon stored in the refuge's forests and permafrost. 

Although primarily studied for their contributions to plant ecology and evolution, herbivores drive belowground soil processes. In both life and death, herbivores determine landscape-scale nutrient distributions and drive belowground activity.

Sackett vs. the EPA effectively stripped Federal protection from much of the 90 million acres of wetlands in the United States. People who enjoy hunting and fishing should be outraged. We have Trump to thank for all these backward steps for society.

Across the nation, 700 colleges and universities have pledged to join the low carbon movement.  A recent press release from Duke University, declares its victory in becoming “carbon neutral” in 2024.  Albeit a specific instance, it is worth kicking the tires of Duke’s claim to see if it is robust.

As summer turns to fall, health officials in several Northeastern states are sounding the alarm on a rare but dangerous mosquito-borne disease: Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE).

David Owen, a writer for the New Yorker, talks about his book The Conundrum: How Scientific Innovation, Increased Efficiency, and Good Intentions Can Make Our Energy and Climate Problems Worse.

A San Francisco Climate Week panel discussion on how changing wildfire is affecting ecosystems, water resources, and communities, and the importance of science for solutions. 

The invasive, introduced spongy moth defoliated trees in many areas of the Hudson Valley in 2023 and in 2024. Last year was particularly notable. In early May of 2024, a huge number of recently hatched caterpillars dispersed by ballooning on silken threads into new areas, while also causing skin irritation when they landed on people not trees.

Tonka Bean trees not only survive lightning strikes, but that lightning damages nearby competing trees and vines. Video based on the research of Cary Institute forest ecologist Evan Gora.

A new study by Dr. Gora, published last week in the journal New Phytologist, reveals that some of the biggest trees in a rainforest don’t just survive lightning strikes. They thrive.

Bernd Blossey, Director of the Ecology and Management of Invasive Plants Program at Cornell University explores the complex relationships between native and non-native species and how we can make a difference by restoring healthy woodlands.