Listening to the Forest
Join us for a conversation about the new public art installation “Listening to the Forest,” with artist Leah Wilson, moderated by Dr. Brooke Penaluna. May 12, 4 PM PST.
Fire Update
Eight months after the ignition of the Holiday Farm Fire we are seeing the first flush of green in the understory of the burned forest…
Science at Home
The Andrews Forest LTER program, and its citizen science partner Oregon Season Tracker, is featured in the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry’s Science at Home series, which offers free, curated, digital content.
Taking Temperatures of Trees
Researchers are using thermal images of trees to better understand connections between tree canopy temperatures and biological processes like photosynthesis, as well as the response of trees to heat waves and droughts.
Studying Stream Food Webs
Downstream food webs, with higher levels of omnivory, are more resilient than upstream food webs. This finding extends ecologists’ understanding of the stability of stream food webs and will help in predicting how food webs and stream communities may respond to both natural disturbances and current global environmental change.
Considering Diversity
Enhancing DEI has been a long-standing and frequent aspiration in natural resources and conservation science. Andrews Forest researchers examined the reasons why scholars and practitioners of natural resources seek to diversify their communities, and evaluated those reasons by developing them into formal arguments.
Understanding Cold Air Pooling
In a recent study, researchers investigated the frequency and persistence of cold air pools in the forest understory and at open weather stations within the Andrews Forest. They found that cold‐air pooling was more frequent and persistent in the forest understory than would be expected from weather station data and is actually the norm, and not the exception.
Hankyu Kim
Hankyu Kim studies birds, microclimate, and forest vegetation. Using long-term data, Hankyu is testing if forest microclimate can predict breeding bird population dynamics, and how the interaction of forest composition and structure regulate bird population trends. Hankyu also is studying the migration ecology of Hermit Warblers, using data loggers to track and map the birds’ movements.
Reflections
The Andrews Forest Long-Term Ecological Reflections program is featured in a new article in terrain.org, "Writing + Art at Andrews Forest, Oregon". This story of arts and humanities was composed by Spring Creek Project's Shelley Stonebrook and is the third in a series of profiles of arts/humanities programs at LTER sites; earlier stories covered Bonanza Creek and Harvard Forest.
Sixty oral histories of Andrews Forest researchers and staff, and participants in Northwest Forest Plan formulation, are now available online in the “Voices of the Forests: Voices of the Mills" archive in the OSU Library Special Collections and Archives Research Center.
Letter from the Leadership
On December 10th, 2020, the National Science Foundation (NSF) sent us official notification that our Long-Term Ecological Research ((LTER) program would be funded for the next six years. The previous year and a half of work on our LTER8 proposal had paid off, and our 40 years of LTER work would continue for at least another six. I want to extend a big thanks to our writing team – Dave Bell, Matt Betts, Lina DiGregorio, Sherri Johnson, Julia Jones, and Mark Schulze – for all of their effort and time on this proposal. The theme of LTER8 is “interactions.” Of course, “interactions” is a, or even “the,” central concept in ecology. But as we write in the proposal “most current predictions about the future of biodiversity under global change assume that species respond directly to climate, but ecological theory and empirical evidence indicate that climate responses may be indirect, and mediated by interactions with other species (via competition, predation, mutualisms, etc.). Although ignoring multiple or complex interactions can make modeling and prediction more tractable, it also limits our capacity to understand future ecological change.” Not only will we be studying a suite of biophysical interactions, but we will examine interactions between values, science, and decision-making through an interdisciplinary social science/conservation ethics effort. Our efforts in education and outreach, and arts and humanities will continue as well since a great strength of our program, as noted in our proposal reviews from NSF, is our breadth.
Support the Andrews Forest
Long-term Ecological Research, Reflections, and outreach cannot happen without broad support. By donating to the Andrews Forest Program, you are supporting research, creative reflection, and education about forests, streams, watersheds, and our engagement with the land.
Photo credits (top to bottom): Leah Wilson, Christopher Still, Lina DiGregorio/Andrews Forest LTER
This material is based upon work supported by the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest and Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, administered cooperatively by the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, Oregon State University, and the Willamette National Forest. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under the LTER Grants: LTER8 DEB-2025755 (2020-2026) and LTER7 DEB-1440409 (2012-2020). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the US Forest Service.
The Andrews Forest Newsletter is a semi-annual publication of the Andrews Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program.
