Long-term litterfall mass data from Harvard Forest was used in conjunction with data from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and a global litterfall dataset to draw conclusions on patterns of litter inputs in temperate deciduous forests, which have implications for carbon and nutrient cycling.
An LTER cross site synthesis effort reveals that soil carbon availability determines nitrogen mineralization and nitrification rates across a wide diversity of terrestrial ecosystems.
The shared spaces between LTER and NEON add value for both networks and for the research community at large.
Ecosystems resist devastation from hurricanes by choosing either of two strategies: high resistance or high resilience.
The Community Building working group from the LTER Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee will be facilitating a panel discussion on community engagement with colleagues from across the network
Social scientists research natural scientists at two LTER sites, and find that collaboration with communication experts is key to easier and more impactful public engagement.
Many scientists have pivotal experiences during their undergraduate education that lead them to choose a career in science, such as opportunities to conduct hands-on research or work closely with mentors. Unfortunately, it’s a challenge to measure the direct impact these foundational experiences have on participants. In a new paper, however, researchers from Harvard Forest LTER… Read more »
Credit: Jack Pearce via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)Species that are abundant often go ignored by conservation planning until an acute threat to their populations emerge – and by then, sometimes it’s too late. According to a new article in the journal Ecosphere, common species are often critically important as structural, dominant, or foundation species in… Read more »
David Buckley Borden was the 2016 artist and designer in residence at Harvard Forest. His creations were featured as an Art/Science Installation and Exhibition from October 2017 to November 2018. Hemlock Hospice paid tribute to the central ecological role of hemlock as a foundation species in Harvard Forest and served as the central theme of an… Read more »
Researchers Frederik Schulz (US Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute) and Lauren Alteio (University of Massachusetts) have discovered sixteen new giant viruses in soil samples from a long-term research site at the Harvard Forest LTER, described in a Nature Communications paper published in November 2018. Giant viruses are larger than most single celled organisms, and tend… Read more »
