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Harvard Forest Research Project 2024
- Title: Hemlock Removal Experiment: light and temperature environment
- Principal investigator: Audrey Barker Plotkin (aabarker@fas.harvard.edu)
- Institution: Harvard Forest
- Primary contact: Mark VanScoy (mvanscoy@fas.harvard.edu)
- Team members: David Orwig
Greta VanScoy - Abstract:
Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) forests are declining in abundance as they are colonized by an exotic insect, the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA, Adelges tsugae). HWA feeds on the tree's sap, effectively girdling the tree over time. Hemlock is then often replaced by hardwoods, causing an abrupt shift in ecosystem characteristics that is often exacerbated by salvage logging. The Harvard Forest Hemlock Removal Experiment, initiated in 2003, includes 8 plots - two replicates of each of four treatments: hemlock controls; hemlocks logged and removed from the site; hemlocks girdled and left dead on site; and hardwood controls. Logging simulates a common management response to adelgid infestation. The hardwood controls represent the expected future forest conditions after ca. 50 years of succession following hemlock death. The hemlock controls were colonized by the hemlock woolly adelgid in 2010 and their trajectory of decline and regeneration will be compared to the girdling treatment, which simulated the physical, but not chemical or biotic, impacts of the adelgid.
This aspect of the study focuses on the microenvironmental changes that occur as a deeply shaded, hemlock-dominated forest loses its hemlock canopy, and that canopy is replaced with mid-successional species such as black birch and white pine. We monitor light levels (via canopy photos and/or remote sensing) and soil and air temperature.
