December 5, 2024

The Incredible Life Beneath Our Feet

By Sarah Kyker, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate

Soils

World Soil Day is held annually on December 5th as a way to foster awareness for soil conservation. This year’s theme for World Soil Day is “Caring for Soils: Measure,... more

January 23, 2024

Can inoculated soils promote healthy urban trees? Preliminary results

By Claudia Bashian-Victoroff, MS, Research Specialist

Trees

Preliminary results from a Holden research project testing soil inoculations for improvement of urban tree plantings. more

December 5, 2023

World Soil Day: Holden’s Soil Ecologists Improving the Odds for Trees in Urban Environments

Soils

Efforts are underway to plant trees in Cuyahoga County’s urban areas by the thousands. In these cities, canopy cover is well below the county average, which brings well-documented ill effects... more

December 1, 2023

Soils Under Snow Still Carry On

By Sarah Kyker, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate

Soils

Winter is a time when we think of dormancy. Chipmunks have begun hibernating. The deciduous trees have lost their leaves. Herbaceous plants are resting belowground as bulbs, rhizomes, etc. But,... more

October 13, 2023

Enlisting Fungi to Help Bring Trees Back to Our Cities 

By Lydia Jahn, Research Specialist

Soils

Mushroom Month might be over, but we aren’t done celebrating mushrooms just yet because October 15th is National Mushroom Day! If you’ve been keeping up with our blog posts for... more

August 21, 2023

Holden Researchers Explore an Underappreciated Way Warmer Temperatures Will Impact Ecosystems: Decomposition

By Anna Funk, Science Communication Specialist

Soils

In a new study, researchers at the Holden Arboretum improve our understanding of a mechanism for how climate change will impact natural ecosystems. more

July 26, 2023

Holden Researcher Will Study How Microbes Alter How Plants Respond to Climate Change with Prestigious Award from the NSF

By Anna Funk, Science Communications Specialist

Soils

There’s an entire universe of microscopic life, living in us, on us, and all around us, too small for the naked eye to see. The more researchers learn about these... more

April 28, 2023

Snowballing Effects of Beech Leaf Disease Hurt Helpful Root Fungi

Soils

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Severe beech leaf disease infestation hurts trees’ relationships with helpful root mutualists, ectomycorrhizal fungi. The American beech, Fagus grandifolia, is a North American staple and the dominant... more

April 28, 2023

Acid Rain’s Effects Still Visible Belowground in Eastern Forests

Soils

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New research from the Holden Arboretum finds de-acidifying forest soils helps bring back important plant-fungi relationships. Caption: Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) is an important member of the forest... more

April 7, 2023

A Day in Bole Woods with Holden Researchers

By Claudia Bashian-Victoroff, MS, Research Specialist

Soils

The Soil Ecology Lab here at the Holden Arboretum is all about collaboration! This week members of our lab spent a day in Bole Woods to do site maintenance for... more

January 18, 2023

Acid Rain and Forest Carbon Storage

By Emma Dawson-Glass, Research Specialist

Soils

The Stuble lab has a new paper out in the journal Applied Soil Ecology exploring the effects of acid rain on forest carbon storage. In this paper, we look at... more

December 2, 2022

Why We’re Celebrating Soil for World Soil Day — And You Should Too!

By Anna Funk, Ph.D., Science Communication Specialist

Soils

We’re surrounded by soils. They’re not just outside, but underneath us, supporting our structures and our homes as well as our ecosystems and food systems. But perhaps the most amazing... more

September 8, 2022

Connecting Above- and Below-Ground Worlds

By Sarah Kyker, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate

Soils

by Sarah Kyker We are continuing to celebrate National Mushroom Month at HF&G all September long! Today, we want to appreciate fungi even when they are not fruiting. While mushrooms... more

July 20, 2022

A New Way to Mulch: Wood Chips

By Rob Maganja, Horticulturist

Soils

Earlier this year, when still in the throes of winter, we found ourselves with many Lilac, Forsythia, and Viburnum branches lining the Display Gardens from recent prunings, and we wanted... more

March 22, 2022

Save Your Back and Save the Bugs!  A No-mulch Approach at the Holden Arboretum

By Jessica Burns, Gardener

Wildlife

Though we’ve made it past the vernal equinox, the official start of Spring in the northern hemisphere, I’ve been around northeast Ohio long enough to know that Winter probably hasn’t... more

January 20, 2022

What’s the (Compost) Tea?: Hot-and-Bothered by the Cold Brew

Soils

By: Rob Maganja, Horticulturist Compost tea is one of the mythological potions of horticulture.  I can just imagine bottles of it on the refrigerated shelf in Whole Foods, somewhere between... more

December 2, 2021

Healthy Soils have a Healthy Dose of Decomposition: Celebrating World Soil Day

By Sarah Kyker, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate

Soils

By: Sarah Kyker, Emma Dawson-Glass, Katie Stuble, and David Burke December 5th marks World Soil Day. World Soil Day began in 2014, initiated by the United Nations, to focus attention... more

July 8, 2021

Biological Time Capsules

By Connor Ryan, Rhododendron Collections Manager

Soils

For many people working in a botanical profession, spring is a mad scramble as we try to accomplish as much as we can while so many plants are in bloom. At the HF&G’s David G. Leach Research Station, we... more

June 18, 2021

The Growth of Forest Trees is Deeply Rooted in Soil

By Sarah Kyker, Postdoctoral Research Associate

Soils

It should come as no surprise that trees are very reliant on the soil they grow in. A tree’s growth and health are deeply rooted in the soil (pun intended),... more

December 4, 2020

The Biodiversity Belowground: Celebrating World Soil Day

By David J. Burke, PhD, Vice President for Science and Conservation

Soils

Each year on December 5th, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations celebrates World Soil Day. World Soil Day began in 2014 to focus attention on the importance of... more