Discoveries

Common loons in the Northeast and nearby southern Canada have faced numerous environmental changes that have impacted their health in recent decades, from acid rain and mercury to the changing…

University of Maine researchers recently discovered invasive earthworms from Europe in Aroostook County, Maine timberlands, in what they say is the first reported sighting of the creatures in…

Many scientists have predicted that as the climate warms, red oak trees will gain a significant amount of suitable habitat in the Northeast and perhaps become a dominant species in northern…

Researchers studying mercury gas in the atmosphere have concluded that trees and plants absorb a vast amount of the toxic element in the same way that plants absorb carbon dioxide. Rainfall is…

With the risk of tick-borne diseases increasing in northern New England, scientists at the University of Maine launched a citizen science project in nine southern and coastal counties in 2020…

Ants play a vital role in the health of forested ecosystems as seed dispersers, decomposers of wood and leaves, aerators of soil via their nesting and tunneling, recyclers of nutrients, and…

The drought that most of New England experienced last summer and fall is likely to slow the growth of white pines and red oaks this year. That’s the prediction from a University of New…

Dragonfly larvae have long been considered an indicator of good water quality because many species require clear, clean water to thrive. Finding any of those species in a water body suggests…

The traditional springtime harvest of fiddleheads – the furled fronds of the ostrich fern – may be in jeopardy in areas where too many are plucked from the same plants in a season.…

Scientists are tracking a newly identified disease that kills American beech trees, and it is now spreading in southern New England and moving north. A microscopic worm called a nematode that…

When Chris Rimmer learned that mercury deposition from the atmosphere was two- to five-times greater at high elevations than at surrounding low elevations, it inspired him to examine whether…

Most of the popular discussion about the changing climate focuses on summer conditions including the increased potential for drought and extreme heat, yet winter conditions are changing most…

The changing climate is transforming forests around the world, and a new study has found that these changes are resulting in forests of shorter and younger trees. A review of 160 previous…

Efforts to restore populations of the rare American marten after their disappearance from much of northern New England in the mid-1900s have had limited success. Despite several reintroduction…

Common green darners are among the largest dragonflies in the Northeast, and they are voracious predators, capturing large flying insects – including other dragonflies – while in…

When the next major outbreak of spruce budworm strikes the forests of the Northeast, millions of acres of trees will be at risk. Nearly 100 million metric tons of stored carbon will also be at…

Porcupines are quite common across the northern tier of the United States, but scientists at the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory have discovered a crippling fungal disease that…

The seed dispersal habits of small mammals have long been known to have a significant bearing on the health and growth of forests. A doctoral student at the University of Maine has found that…

A team of researchers studying snowpack decline found that snowless winters leave trees stunted. In a series of forest manipulation experiments begun in 2007 at Hubbard Brook Experimental…

Jennifer Blake-Mahmud often thinks of plants and trees as being somewhat like Lego building blocks. Sometimes what they become looks nothing like the picture on the box. For instance, they…