Lab Holiday Party, 2012
Lunch break views after morning field work, Coweeta LTER
Soil samples taken in Central Park (NYC) July 2012, as part of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative, in collaboration with Diana Wall and Noah Fierer
Typical view of a soil ecologist, when they stop to look up
Japanese stilt grass exploiting edge habitat as it invades the eastern U.S., forming “carpets” across the forests
Bug’s eye view of a research plot
A view across Coweeta basin in the southern Appalachian mountains, North Carolina, where we do much of our research as part of the NSF Long Term Ecological Research Program
Tara placing resin bags out in the field, to assess how invasive plants alter nitrogen cycling and hence soil fertility
Hemlock die-off in Coweeta
Japanese stilt grass – the most pervasive plant invader in forest understories across the eastern U.S. – growing above the ground in a downed tree
The most common termite in the eastern U.S. – Reticulitermes flavipes – inside a branch, broken open with a hatchet. These animals play an important role in forest nutrient cycling but are perhaps best known for the billion dollar damage they cause each year to homes and other structures
The common woodland ant – Aphaenogaster - ubiquitous across eastern U.S. forests and critical to forest diversity in its role dispersing seeds of woodland herbs, including many of the wildflowers
One of the wildflowers – a Trillium - dispersed by Aphaenogaster ants
An artificial ant nest being placed at Yale-Myers Forest in Connecticut, to help understand Aphaenogaster ant-nesting requirements and so potential habitat for wildflowers dispersed by this species
Rotting heartwood in the trunk of a recently-felled tree: decay that we rarely see but that could be important in our understanding of the carbon cycle and climate
