Research
Department News
July 8, 2021
Biological Time Capsules
By Connor Ryan, Rhododendron Collections Manager
Science on Friday
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July 1, 2021
The Annual Bioscience Alliance Intern Fun Days Returned in 2021
By Courtney Blashka, David Burke, Juliana Medeiros, Sarah Kyker, Jessica Miller, Connor Ryan, Katie Stuble, Rebecah Troutman, and Na Wei
Science on Friday
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June 17, 2021
Jessica LaBella Receives Garden Club of America Scholarship
Holden’s Norweb Fellow, Jessica LaBella, has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Corliss Knap Engle Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded from the Garden Club of America in collaboration with the Botanic Gardens Conservation International – U.S.
June 11, 2021
Homogenized Biota in an Era of Urban Expansion and Globalization
By Caleb Lumsden, Research Department Intern
Research Department intern Caleb Lumsden shares his knowledge on biotic homogenization in today’s Science on Fridays with Holden blog.
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June 4, 2021
2021 Holden Summer Intern Program
The HF&G’s Research, Community Forestry and Conservation teams are excited about the arrival of the 2021 cohort of interns. This year, HF&G leverages resources and opportunities across departments and campuses to allow our interns gain the finest in knowledge, experience, and skills for future career success.
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May 21, 2021
Hot in the city – Can tree seedlings from urban areas beat the heat?
By Sharon Danielson, MS, Doctoral Graduate Student
Urban development is expanding rapidly, leaving a patchwork of small, isolated forests in its wake. Urban areas tend to have more paved surfaces that retain heat leading to an urban heat island effect. Nearby, forests are subjected to higher temperatures leading to higher evaporative demand from leaf surfaces while soil compaction and altered water flow can lead to limited soil water availability. This may be particularly detrimental for young seedlings that are vulnerable to desiccation.
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May 19, 2021
Na Wei is Lead Author on a Paper in Molecular Ecology
Holden Scientist, Na Wei is the lead author on a paper titled “Pollinators mediate floral microbial diversity and microbial network under agrochemical disturbance.” This research is published in the March issue of Molecular Ecology.
May 15, 2021
Jessica LaBella Receives BSA Student Travel Award
Holden’s Norweb Fellow, Jessica LaBella, has received a travel award from the Botanical Society of America. Jessica will use this award to attend the annual BOTANY meeting in July 2021 where she will present her research from Holden.
May 14, 2021
Presenting Science Virtually
By Sarah Kyker, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate
Information sharing is the cornerstone of science. Scientific conferences are a key venue for this information sharing – places where scientists present recent findings and hear what others are working on. Scientists, including the researchers at Holden, travel around the globe to share information with colleagues. As a scientist myself, attendance at conferences and invited seminars has become one of the best ways to learn about new research in the field ! However, in March of 2020, when it became necessary for us to stay socially distant due to COVID-19, in-person scientific conferences were cancelled.
Read moreMay 11, 2021
Sharon Danielson Receives Fellowship from the Garden Club of America
Holden graduate student, Sharon Danielson, has received the Fellowship in Urban Forestry from the Garden Club of America and in partnership with the Botanic Gardens Conservation International – U.S.
May 10, 2021
Two National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellows will Join the Holden Research Department
The NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology program has funded two postdoctoral fellows who will conduct research at Holden Arboretum.
Read moreMay 7, 2021
Conifer trait study using multiple arboreta as common gardens
By Randy Long, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar
We are excited to announce a new project using the conifer collection at the Holden Arboretum led by postdoctoral researcher Dr. Randy Long. He is using arboreta and botanic gardens across the United States to examine trait variation and plasticity in conifer species and how they are influenced by native range distributions.
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April 23, 2021
Katie Stuble Co-Author’s Paper in Ecosphere
Holden Scientist and Research Department Chair, Katie Stuble, is a co-author on a paper titled “Abundance of spring-active arthropods declines with warming.” This paper is in the April issue of Ecosphere and can be read here.
April 15, 2021
Beech Leaf Disease Workshop Includes Research from Holden
A recent workshop on Beech Leaf Disease included a talk by Holden’s Vice President for Science and Conservation, David Burke. The workshop was organized by the USDA Forest Service and reached over 500 people, including land managers and researchers. David’s talk was titled “Optimizing Rapid Detection Methods for the Nematode Litylenchus crenatae, the Associative Agent of Beech Leaf Disease.”
April 11, 2021
Na Wei Co-Author’s paper in Oecologia
Holden Scientist Na Wei is a co-author on a paper titled “Diversity and composition of pollen loads carried by pollinators are primarily driven by insect traits, not floral community characteristics.” The paper is in the April issue of Oecologia and can be read here.
April 9, 2021
Research from the Burke Lab Published in Special Issue of Plants People Planet
David Burke, Sarah Kyker, Adam Hoke, Charlotte Hewins, and former summer intern, Catherine Chervanek have published research on mycorrhizal fungi that colonize root mats in the forest of Pierson Creek. Research on these root mats, which are dense tangles of mature tree roots just underneath the litter layer in the forest, began during Catherine’s summer internship. The research is published in a special issue of Plants People Planet on “Mycorrhizas for a changing world: Sustainability, conservation, and society” and can be read here.
April 1, 2021
Holden Awarded a Landscape Scale Restoration Grant
David Burke (Vice President for Science and Conservation) and Katie Stuble (Research Department Chair) were partners with Holden’s Conservation Department on a grant funded through the Landscape Scale Restoration Program. The project, titled “Making a Young Landscape Old: Landscape-scale forest restoration to promote biodiversity and resilience to environmental change,” will be conducted in the natural areas of Stebbins Gulch.
April 1, 2021
Alexa Wagner Receives Student Restoration Research Grant
Holden graduate student, Alexa Wagner, has received a Student Restoration Research Grant from the Society of Ecological Restoration, Midwest Great Lakes Chapter. The grant will go towards funding Alexa’s research in restoration practices at The Working Woods.
March 19, 2021
Holden Scientists and Volunteers Gear Up for Spring in the Forest
By Katie Stuble, PhD, Scientist
I had a moment of panic last week. It was the crocuses that did me in, if you can believe it! Well, the crocuses and climate change. I’m a scientist, and an experiment was on the line.
This year will mark four years of spring phenology monitoring in Bole Woods. Phenology is the study of the timing of natural events, and we’ve been monitoring the timing of the spring greening of Holden’s forests. This sort of monitoring helps us understand how species may (or may not) be able to track the changing climate, and anticipate potential changes in our natural world.
March 15, 2021
Alexa Wagner Selected as a Botany in Action Fellow at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
Alexa Wagner (graduate student at Holden) has been selected as a Botany in Action Fellow at The Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. This program provides support for emerging scientists aiming to promote plants, biodiversity and sustainable landscapes through research, scientific outreach and education.
March 12, 2021
Holden Scientists were Wildly Curious about Wild Leek
By Sarah Kyker, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate
The old growth remnant forests in Stebbins Gulch are locations at Holden Arboretum that David Burke and his lab have been studying for years. Burke first began hiking to the old growth portions of Stebbins Gulch back in 2006. One thing that he and Charlotte Hewins noticed every spring was the immense cover of wild leek (Allium tricoccum) on the forest floor. “Come April when the leeks are fully emerged, there is nowhere to step that isn’t completely covered in them,” Hewins once told me. In April of 2008, I saw it for myself and it took my breath away. Forest floors were supposed to be brown and covered in decaying leaves. But, the forest floor of Stebbins Gulch that April (and every April after) was green due to numerous wild leek leaves unfurling toward the sun!
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March 1, 2021
Caleb Lumsden Receives Fellowship from the Garden Club of America
A former summer intern, Caleb Lumsden, has received the Fellowship in Conservation Horticulture from the Garden Club of America in collaboration with the Botanic Gardens Conservation International – U.S. The fellowship will bring Caleb back to Holden to conduct research on the hemlock woolly adelgid during the summer of 2021.
February 19, 2021
Detecting Changes in the Natural World
By Katie Stuble, PhD, Scientist
The Holden Arboretum is a stunning place to explore with its beautiful gardens and forests. I love to hike the trails with my family and watch the gardens transform over the seasons. But, as a scientist who studies the impacts of climate change, the Arboretum is also a treasure-trove of information. Natural areas like the ones protected by the Arboretum are increasingly rare and hugely important not only as sanctuaries for wildlife, but also as spaces in which to study it. And, given the stresses currently placed on the Earth, this role is perhaps more important today than ever.
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