Dr. Sydne Record and colleagues from Harvard Forest published new conceptual framework for identifying, monitoring, and conserving foundation species, with case studies of declining Eastern hemlock and whitebark pine. Check it out here.

“To continue to extend the ecological tent, working group leaders should be deliberate and thoughtful in their conduct.” Sydne and colleagues Kyla Dahlin and Phoebe Zarnetske (both from Michigan State University) reflect on how they worked to increase inclusion while leading a NASA funded working group of 15 scientists in a new article in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Spoiler alert: they propose a new use of toddler toothbrushing and handwashing timers.

Brianna Martinez (BMC ’22 and Houston Posse) did a great job presenting her research from this past summer at Harvard Forest at the Bryn Mawr Summer Science Research Symposium. Way to go, Brianna!

Congratulations to Nia “Blue” Riggins! The Ecological Society of America (ESA) awarded Blue a diversity award as Strategies for Ecology, Education, Diversity and Sustainability fellow. Blue received the award at the ESA annual meeting last week in Lousville, Kentucky. While there, Blue also presented her research in collaboration with Dr. Sydne Record in a poster entitled, “What does the future hold for the Harvard Forest Megaplot? Seedling Abundance, Diversity, and Mortality of a Forest in Transition.” The abstract for Blue’s poster is online here.

Dr. Sydne Record co-authored a paper on the importance of considering geodiversity as an essential component of the Earth system. She and an international group of collaborators emphasize the need for essential geodiversity variables in international global frameworks for conservation. Check out the paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Field season is in full swing as the Record Lab embarks on its third season of sampling tree seedlings in the Harvard Forest ForestGEO plot. In June we welcomed colleagues, Dr. Andrew Latimer and Paige Kouba from UC Davis. Paige is staying on at Harvard Forest to help with the census. Fun times!

Kyra Hoerr (BMC ’20) and Dr. Sydne Record co-wrote a successful Global Bryn Mawr grant to study mistletoes in New Jersey and the United Kingdom. The grant will pay for Kyra to do field work next winter in the U.K. with our collaborator Roberto Salguero-Gomez at Oxford. It will also pay for some field work in New Jersey to set up a sister study on mistletoes and pay for Rob to visit Bryn Mawr to give a talk on his awesome COMADRE and COMPADRE global demography databases.

Last week, Dr. Sydne Record had the chance to visit the beautiful National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado for a meeting hosted jointly by NCAR and the National Ecological Observatory Network. The meetings goal was to work toward greater success in predicting the earth system via greater synergies between ecologists and climate change modelers.

In collaboration with Tim Harte and Irina Walsh (Russian Department), Sydne is teaching a 360 course cluster this semester entitled ‘Eurasia in the Anthropocene.’ The 15 students in the class plus Tim, Irina, and Sydne spent 16 days traveling across Russia, Mongolia, and Taiwan. Ecological highlights on the trip included hikes through the boreal forest of Siberia, the steppe of Mongolia, and the sub-tropical rainforest of Taiwan (with a visit to the Fushan International Long Term Ecological Research Site and Smithsonian ForestGEO plot).

Here is the group after a hike along the Liwu River in Taroko National Park in Taiwan.

It’s a good week in the Record Lab. Kyra Hoerr (BMC ’20) received a Hannah Holborn Gray Fellowship, which will provide her with summer funding to explore her interests at the intersection of philosophy and ecological modeling. Nia ‘Blue’ Riggins (BMC ’20) has been accepted to the Cornell Summer Research Scholars Program to expand her interests in entomology for the summer. Congrats to Kyra and Blue!!!