Forest ecology field interns have had a busy two weeks since arriving for the summer. Catch up with some of their work, and see a few observations made along the way!
Techs stumbled upon a juvenile eastern newt, or red eft as they are aptly named, while completing their plant phenology trail through the Nature’s Notebook app. A welcome splash of color on a dreary day!
For the past two weeks, field techs have collected phenology data on the tree test beds set up at SERC and MDI (the first is outside of Wright Hall while the latter is near the top of Cadillac Mountain). A mix of native species and species that are projected to ‘migrate’ north with climate change, this data set will provide an important insight into how seasonal changes will shift with climate change, as well as how well current non-native species are able to establish in this region.
An emerging balsam fir (Abies balsamea) seedling in the bed outside of Wright Hall. By next week, it may drop its seed coat and its cotyledons will start to expand – this type of change in the timeline of a seedling is what techs are tracking in the above project.
Photos by Diana Gurvich.