Discoveries

Invasive species pose significant ecological and economic problems; a 2021 study published in the journal NeoBiota estimated that invasive species cost the North American economy $26 billion…

The production of steel and concrete is responsible for approximately 13½ percent of global carbon emissions, according to a 2022 article in the journal Nature. After clean water,…

As climate change continues to reshape ecosystems across the globe, forests – key players in the Earth’s carbon cycle – are also undergoing significant transformations. A…

Insect pollinators provide critical ecosystem services across the planet. A 2011 study in the journal Oikos estimated that between 75 and 95 percent of the planet’s flowering plant…

People are exposed to ticks across diverse outdoor environments, from backyard gardens to backcountry wilderness. To limit tick-borne diseases, we can discourage ticks from biting us by…

Exacerbated by climate change, extreme city heat is an increasingly common concern. Thankfully, trees can help. For decades, city managers have turned to oak, maple, linden, and other species…

One of the core goals of ecologists is identifying how species interact. Does species A, for instance, have a positive, negative, or neutral impact on species B? Elucidating such relationships…

In much of the eastern United States, oaks are declining, while generalist species such as red maple (Acer rubrum) are on the rise in historically oak-dominated forests. This shift is in part…

Swirl a bit of maple syrup into your coffee or tea instead of refined table sugar. With this simple choice, you can enjoy an especially delicious morning beverage and support the sugarmakers…

Beneath the towering beeches, wintergreen-scented birches, and bright red fall maples that dot the canopy of a northern hardwood forest, a vast array of plants makes up the understory. When…

From bald eagles to black bears to red foxes, many of the most iconic northeastern animals scavenge the remains of big game, leaving them vulnerable to consuming fragments of toxic lead…

As microbes and plant roots metabolize organic matter in the soil, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a process called soil respiration. In the Northeast, where forests store…

Every year in the United States, road crews dispense more than 24 million metric tons of de-icing salts. In the snowy Northeast, where plows and salt trucks ply the roads for months on end,…

For conservationists seeking to reverse the global decline of bumble bee populations, pesticide contamination of soils is a significant concern. Although there has not been extensive research…

Mushrooms take up nutrients and minerals from whatever they are growing on, for example, wood they’re decomposing or, in the case of mycorrhizal fungi, forest soils and tree roots. They…

More people are taking an interest in outdoor recreation in New Hampshire at the same time as seasons are shifting, winters are warming, and storms are strengthening. To what extent are these…

Most of the stories about carbon in the Northern Forest focus on sequestration and storage: all that carbon taken in and held by the region’s trees, plants, animals, fungi, and soils.…

It is not uncommon to find an apple tree deep in the woods, a reminder that the forest-dominated landscape we know today is relatively recent. In the 1800s, farmers cleared much of the region…

When the last ice sheet began melting some 20,000 years ago, the climate changed dramatically, and trees responded. As temperature and humidity shifted, tree populations expanded and…