ForestGEO Researchers Receive New Funding to Explore Forest Function

A National Science Foundation grant of nearly $1 million will fund new research at two ForestGEO sites – Harvard Forest and Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) starting later this year.  The $965,000 award was granted to University of Maryland Associate Professor and ForestGEO partner Nathan Swenson, ForestGEO Director Stuart Davies, and Temperate Forest Program Coordinator Sean McMahon to investigate forest function from genes to canopies. The research aims to quantify how inter- and intra-annual differential gene expression in leaves and genotypic differentiation are related to leaf level gas exchange, fine scale measurements of tree growth, and carbon dioxide flux measured at the scale of forest canopies.

Forests’ ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide makes them integral to regulating climate change. But the thousands of individual trees within a forest vary greatly in their physiological and growth response to environmental change. In order to predict future forest functioning, individual leaf processes need to be linked to larger forest level processes. This research will use innovative new technology and specific measurements of individual tree growth and physiology to address this challenge.  

Harvard Forest, USA

“The work uniquely scales from genes to ecosystems while simultaneously considering spatial and temporal variation in forest function”, said Swenson. “Ecology is entering a exciting new age where the substantial advances made in genome and transcriptome sequencing can now be utilized in non-model organisms in the wild. Coupling these advances in ‘omics with detailed measurements of plant performance from the leaf to the canopy scale was thought to be impossible only a few years ago and it is expected to transform ecology”.

Harvard Forest and SERC are also part of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), which is supported by NSF. It is a network of ecological observation facilities with sites across the U.S. that gathers and analyzes data on climate change, land use change, invasive species, and how these influence biodiversity and natural resources. Goals of NEON include forecasting continental-scale environmental change, informing natural resource decisions, and engaging the next generation of scientists.

CTFS-SIGEO Welcomes Indiana University Forest Dynamics Plot to Global Network

Indiana University researchers joined CTFS-SIGEO in April, 2012, increasing the scope and impact of the sizable temperate plot network. Stuart Davies, CTFS-SIGEO Director, is very pleased about the new addition, "This provides an important new site for the network. By expanding the spatial coverage of forest observatories in the US our ability to understand the role that temperate forest ecosystems play in the global environment will be greatly enhanced.

The research will take place at Lilly-Dickey Woods, a 220-hectare forest in Brown County, Indiana, valued as an important central hardwoods forest. Human management has been minimal for the last 150 years, and parts of the Woods contain some of the largest trees to be found in Indiana forests. The forest lies near the center of the Nature Conservancy's Brown County Hills region, targeted as a prime location for forest conservation. Lilley-Dickey Woods was designated as part of the Indiana University Research and Teaching Preserve (IURTP) in 2003. The IURTP maintains natural field settings to enhance the research, teaching, and service mission of Indiana University.

PI Keith Clay in the Lilley-Dickey Woods of Indiana

IU's involvement with STRI evolved from the PhD research of Daniel Johnson, graduate student in the Department of Biology. "I wanted to start a project for my PhD thesis that would outlast my time here at IU," says Johnson. Thus far, the project has been funded by the IURTP, the Indiana Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation. Johnson will continue to lead the project until he completes his degree next year. Keith Clay (Professor of Biology and Director of the IURTP) and Richard Phillips (Assistant Professor of Biology) will oversee the initiative. Johnson has completed 9 hectares of the initial survey and the CTFS-SIGEO collaboration will increase the area of study to 25 hectares. 

Graduate student Daniel Johnson follows CTFS-SIGEO protocol for measuring trees

Keith Clay (Johnson's graduate advisor), when asked about the project, responded, "This is an enormous undertaking. Dan will be creating a substantial legacy. The CTFS-SIGEO plot will not only provide a resource for future environmental science research at IU, but the data collected will be used by scientists throughout the world to answer critical questions about climate change and other environmental issues. This project will spotlight the value of IURTP resources to the university and the global scientific community." 

California Temperate Forest Plot Joins CTFS-SIGEO Network

The University of California Santa Cruz Forest Ecology Research Plot (UCSC-FERP), located in the UCSC Campus Natural Reserve, will expand from its original size of 6 ha to 16 ha as it joins the CTFS-SIGEO network. This Mediterranean climate, mixed evergreen coastal forest plot was originally established in 2007 by PI Gregory Gilbert and colleagues, and contains 8,180 tagged stems from 31 species and 18 families. The four dominant species are Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia), Shreve's Oak (Quercus parvula var. shrevei) and Tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus); Fagaceae and Pinaceae together comprise three-fourths of all stems. Additional studies at the site investigate soil nutrients, texture, and moisture, as well as understory light conditions. There is also ongoing monitoring of phenology, micrometeorology, small terrestrial mammals, bats, fungi, and arthropods.

Plot expansion will bring several new aspects to the site, such as the ability to follow population dynamics, an expansion into different soil types, and the inclusion of an area that has undergone significant canopy mortality in the last two decades for unknown reasons. The expanded plot will also include a significant area of redwood-dominated forest. Over 100 students have already been involved in plot studies through undergraduate courses, senior theses, and internships, and this plot expansion promises expanded research and educational opportunities.

Dr. Gregory Gilbert in the UCSC forest dynamics plot

Plot Census Finished in Pacific Northwest Temperate Forest of the U.S.

Fieldwork for the establishment of the Wind River Forest Dynamics (WFDP) plot finished in early October. Located in southwest Washington State, the plot extends 800 m east-west and 320 m north-south, for a total area of 25.6 ha. This configuration matches the Yosemite Forest Dynamics Plot in California and the Wabikon Forest Dynamics Plot in Wisconsin. The WFDP has approximately 35,000 trees (data entry not yet complete). In addition to tagging all woody stems according to the CTFS protocol, the project has mapped snags ≥10 cm dbh, continuous patches of shrub cover ≥2 m², and large woody debris ≥50 cm diameter. Snags remain standing for decades in the Pacific Northwest, and constitute important habitat for vertebrates. Snag height and decomposition class will be measured as part of the 5-year measurements to track snag devolution over time. The project team measures shrubs because they form dense patches that inhibit tree regeneration, and woody debris because it can remain an important part of the ecosystem for centuries.

From left, Sean McMahon(SIGEO), Andy Jones (Oregon State), Stuart Davies (SIGEO),
and Jim Lutz (WFDP PrincipalInvestigator) in front of a typical Douglas-fir, 72 meters tall.

Wind RiverForest Dynamics Plot 2011 volunteers, Rachel Mickey,

Cassie Gamm, Dani Lange, SeanJeronimo, and James Freund,

demonstrate their techniques on the last dayof nailing.

The WFDP was established by the PIs (Jim Lutz and Andrew Larson), their students, a dedicated and waterproof field crew, and a large cadre of volunteers. The grid survey was conducted by surveying professionals and instructors and students from University of Washington, University of Montana, and Clark College.


More information about the Wind River Forest Dynamics Plot can be found at http://depts.washington.edu/wfdp.

Enumeration Progress at Harvard Forest

The census of woody stems within the 35-ha Harvard Forest plot began on 1 June 2010. Using standardized CTFS-SIGEO methodology, Dave Orwig and three 2-person crews measured, tagged, painted, and mapped every stem greater than 1 cm in diameter at 1.3 m. By 27 August, when vegetation sampling for the year ended, 29,908 stems had been tagged, mapped, and measured, representing approximately 13 hectares.

The 3 western columns were particularly dense, containing dense thickets of mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia). Stem densities averaged 2,301/ha and ranged from 1,756 to 3,071/ha. All stems were entered twice into the temporary database during the summer, and Dave Orwig will continue to screen and edit all data for uploading to the database during autumn 2010. In addition, work will proceed with digitally mapping all stems contained on the 1,300 10 x 10 maps produced from the 13 ha of forest.

Harvard Forest Plot Underway

by David A. Orwig

Harvard Forest researchers, with the assistance of scientists from CTFS-SIGEO, began the census of woody stems on June 1, 2010. The 35-ha plot is dominated by eastern hemlock and northern hardwood species and will make an excellent comparison with several other hardwood plots in North America and China at similar latitudes.

To date, over 13,000 stems have been tagged, mapped, and measured, representing approximately 4.5 hectares. Some of the quadrats were particularly dense, containing dense thickets of mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia). Over the course of the summer, Forest Ecologist David Orwig and six crew members will continue sampling in the western portion of the plot.

The Harvard Forest plot forms part of a global array of large-scale plots established by CTFS-SIGEO, which recently expanded sampling efforts into temperate forests to explore ecosystem processes beyond population dynamics and biodiversity. The geography and size of the plot (500 m x 700 m) was designed to include a continuous, expansive, and varied natural forest landscape that will yield opportunities for the study of forest dynamics and demography while capturing a large amount of existing science infrastructure (e.g., eddy flux towers, gauged sections of a small watershed, existing smaller permanent plots) that will enable the integrated study of ecosystem processes (e.g., biogeochemistry, hydrology, carbon dynamics) and forest dynamics. Thus the resulting data will integrate well with ongoing NSF-funded LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) and NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) studies.

First census of Yosemite 25-ha plot completed

On Friday July 9, 2010, CTFS-SIGEO partners finished the first census of the 25-ha plot located in Yosemite National Park. Seven temperate plots, at varying stages of enumeration, are now in place in North America.

Field work started last year during the last two weeks of June, when more than 13,000 individual trees in approximately 10 ha were censused. The census of the second half of the plot required about the same number of fieldwork hours as the first.

The Yosemite Forest Dynamics Plot is located near Crane Flat in Yosemite National Park, with white fir (Abies concolor), sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana), and Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttallii) making up most of the species. The principal investigators are Drs. James Lutz and Andrew Larson.

PHOTOS: By Jim Lutz