Discoveries

Hemlock wooly adelgid, the invasive insect from Japan that is wiping out most of the hemlock forests in the eastern United States, is also having a significant effect on the availability of…

As human population grows, forests often become more and more fragmented as trees are cut down to make way for roads, housing developments, office parks, and shopping centers. Most research on…

Many scientists have predicted that as the climate warms, most bird species in the Northern Hemisphere will shift their ranges northward or up the slopes of mountains in order to remain in…

Lawns cover 63,000 square miles of the United States, making turf the largest irrigated crop in the country. As much as some ecologists consider lawns to be biological deserts that Americans…

A team of engineers at the University of Maryland has created transparent wood windows that are waterproof and less breakable than glass. What’s more, the windows provide more even and…

Researchers have long believed that the changing climate will force most species of birds to shift their ranges to follow their preferred climate niches. Rather than adapting to the new…

Anyone who has paid even a little attention to plants and trees in late winter and early spring knows how responsive they are to temperature. In years when the winters are warm, many trees and…

It has been more than 80 years since a tree species in the Northeast has been added to the list of those meeting construction industry standards, but that list has just grown by one. Lumber…

Most of the 14,000-plus dams that dot New England’s rivers and streams – almost all built more than a century ago – once provided power to nearby mills. While these mills no…

Twenty years ago, scientists experimented with adding calcium to forest soils and found that it boosted tree growth. Today, they’re seeing an unexpected spike in nitrogen loss in these…

The long, instinctive migration of monarch butterflies from the northern United States and Canada to their wintering grounds in central Mexico is considered one of the natural world’s…

As the composition of tree species in forests in southern New England has evolved in recent decades, many of those forests have become more vulnerable to drought. The reason for the changing…

In the world of trees, it is difficult for seeds and seedlings to take root far from their parent plants, yet that’s a key factor in seedling survival. “The closer you are to mom,…

A team of researchers has been studying the effects of adding extra leaf litter and other organic matter to the soil in Harvard Forest for more than 25 years. The original purpose was to test…

Coyotes have become ubiquitous in the Northeast since they began colonizing the region in the 1920s. The conventional wisdom has been that coyotes are specialists in preying on deer, thus…

Trapping carbon dioxide before it exits power plants, vehicle exhaust pipes, and industrial smokestacks is believed by many experts to be a key step in fighting climate change. The most…

Abandoned industrial sites litter the world, and many are contaminated with pollutants that make it difficult to redevelop the land. Yet some species of trees can tolerate polluted soil and…

Rusty blackbird populations have declined by about 95 percent in the last 50 years, making their decline the fastest of any songbird in all of North America. They breed in stunted conifers…

Beavers have long been admired for their dam-building skills, which enable them to create ponds and slow the movement of water. Recently, a team of University of Rhode Island scientists has…

The hemlock woolly adelgid remains near the top of the list of harmful pest insects in eastern forests. It has significantly damaged the hemlocks in 2.5 million acres of hemlock-dominated…