Discoveries

Soils throughout the world store more carbon, in the form of organic matter, than all of the vegetation and atmosphere combined. Microorganisms in the soil – bacteria, fungi, protozoa,…

A project to map the genes of spruce and pine trees has revealed that the genome of conifers has remained pretty much the same for more than 100 million years. This stability explains why…

The widespread decline of both wild and managed bee populations has raised alarms for more than a decade due to the importance of bees as pollinators of both agricultural crops and wild…

Inventories often report that forested lands across the U.S. and elsewhere are declining, but those studies simply look at the total deforested area. A new analysis of forests in the lower 48…

When a stand of trees is blown down in a storm, the typical practice is to salvage as many saleable trees as possible. But a 20- year study in the Harvard Forest found that if you are just…

A common species of moss (Ceratodon purpureus) that lives in weedy and forested habitats has been found to use an unusual strategy to reproduce: it produces a chemical scent to recruit tiny…

Skeletal tissues of living animals are constantly being renewed and replaced as wear and tear creates stresses and microfractures. In order to know how much bone needs replacing, the skeleton…

A new study led by a researcher at the U.S. Geological Survey suggests that there are early indications that soils are recovering – at least in red spruce forests – from the…

American elms were once a favorite tree in urban landscapes across America, prized for their elegant shape. When Dutch elm disease found its way to the United States in the 1930s, it slowly…

Researchers from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are attaching high-speed cameras to pigeons to gain insight into how the birds navigate through dense forests…

A new study of eastern red-spotted newts, by a biologist at Bennington College in Vermont, suggests that these amphibians are able to adapt to dramatically different aquatic conditions.…

Those interested in observing the night sky are often frustrated by the glow of population centers and street lights that makes it difficult to see all but the brightest stars. But stargazers…

Acid rain has long been known to acidify the calcium-poor soils in parts of the Northeast, resulting in declines in sugar maple and other important tree species. New research by ecologists at…

When it rains, the cupped leaf of the pitcher plant becomes so slick that ants, spiders, and other prey attracted to its sweet aroma slide into the plant, where they drown and are dissolved…

While Vermont’s forest and wetland bird species are generally doing well, a recent survey documented a significant decline of grassland and shrubland birds. The Vermont Breeding Bird…

Most gardeners are familiar with what has become known as “the nursery effect,” in which genetically identical plants acquired from different nurseries grow and respond to stress…

One of the most important relationships in the forest is between mycorrhizal fungi, a highly diverse group of soil microbes, and a wide variety of tree and understory plant species. The fungi…

While it is well known that wind causes trees to sway, University of Connecticut researcher Mark Rudnicki says that the movement of trees also affects the wind. “Wind gusts have a…

Global travel raises concerns among public health officials that a disease outbreak in one part of the world will quickly and easily spread elsewhere. The same is commonly believed to be true…

The chemical compounds in lichens have long been known to have antibiotic and antiviral properties. Pharmaceutical companies have been studying these properties for years. But recently,…