Research
Department News
September 2, 2022
Science on Friday: Mushroom Month Trivia
By Claudia Bashian-Victoroff, MS, Research Specialist
September is one of our favorite months in the Holden Forests & Gardens Soil Ecology lab. Why? Because it is National Mushroom Month. Many people celebrate National Mushroom Month by cooking and eating their favorite mushrooms. And we do too! But we also celebrate the month by appreciating all that fungi do for the natural world around us.
August 26, 2022
Can I save my beech tree? And other beech care questions, answered
By David J. Burke, PhD, Vice President for Science and Conservation
If you live anywhere near northeastern Ohio, you may have noticed your beech trees are looking a bit ragged lately. Unfortunately, there are now not just one but two major pests — beech bark disease and beech leaf disease — that are bothering our region’s beeches.
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August 26, 2022
Why You Should Trim Your Beech Tree in September
By David J. Burke, PhD, Vice President for Science and Conservation
David Burke, Vice President for Science and Conservation, discusses Beech Tree health and how to properly trim to ensure the tree thrives.
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July 14, 2022
The Science Lab/ Kitchen Overlap
By Sharon Halkovics, Research Specialist
Years ago, I completed my undergraduate studies earning a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Health Science. I started down my career path assisting in a lab at a university. A couple of years later, I veered off course for a more hands-in-the-dirt experience and fell in love with small-scale farming. Farming led to working in restaurant kitchens then a culinary school, which eventually led to freelancing as a food stylist on large commercial accounts.
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July 8, 2022
A Morning in Working Woods with Green Corps Interns
By Emma Dawson- Glass, Research Specialist
Have you ever wondered what the day-to-day of scientists looks like? Certainly, daily activities will vary greatly depending on what kind of scientist you are, what time of year it is, and where you work. For community ecologists in the Stuble Lab at the Holden Arboretum, the summer months means it’s time to get out into the natural area at Holden to collect data.
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June 16, 2022
New Eastern Hemlock Conservation Work Kicks Off at Holden
By Rachel Kappler, Great Lakes Basin Forest Health Collaborative (GLB FHC) Coordinator
Researchers across the country are interested in learning more about forest pests that threaten our native tree species. Populations of eastern hemlock, found across Appalachia, New England, and the Great Lakes, are faced with two different insect pests, hemlock woolly adelgid and elongate hemlock scale, that have killed nearly 80 percent of hemlocks in some areas.
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June 3, 2022
2022 Holden Summer Intern Program
By Emma Dawson-Glass, Research Specialist
The HF&G’s Research, Community Forestry and Conservation teams are excited about the arrival of the 2022 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 20, 2022
The Spring Ephemerals in Stebbins Gulch
By Sarah R. Carrino-Kyker, Postdoctoral Research Associate
Spring ephemeral flowers in the forest only bloom for a short period of time after the weather warms up from the winter, but before the trees in the canopy fully leaf-out and the light levels get lower on the forest floor. As such, our days of flower surveys are often long days in the field crammed together all in one or two weeks. This way, we can catch the plants before they go dormant again. But, these days of flower surveys are also ones when I have experienced some of the best natural beauty of the forests at Holden!
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May 6, 2022
How to Clone a Tree
By Rachel Kappler, Great Lakes Basin Forest Health Collaborative (GLB FHC) Coordinator
How do you study a fully grown tree in a regular-sized laboratory? You collect a branch, take it back to the lab, graft it onto a much smaller tree, and study the clone. And that’s exactly what Holden researchers are doing with beech trees from all over the Great Lakes Basin. They’re making these clones because some trees from the region appear to be resistant to pests that cause beech leaf disease, and they want to understand why.
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April 21, 2022
New Research Collaboration Aims to Save Eastern Hemlocks
By Rachel Kappler, Great Lakes Basin Forest Health Collaborative (GLB FHC) Coordinator
Holden research launched a new initiative this year to help conserve eastern hemlocks. The Great Lakes Basin Forest Health Collaborative (GLB FHC) brings together the US Forest Service Northern Research Station in Ohio and the New Jersey Forest Service with Holden to focus on breeding eastern hemlock trees for resistance to pests.
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April 21, 2022
Alexa Wagner Awarded a Phipps Botany in Action Fellowship
Holden Ph.D. Candidate, Alexa Wagner, has been awarded a Botany in Action Fellowship from Phipps Conservatory for her research in Working Woods. The title of her proposal is “Understanding the impacts of forest restoration on demographic shifts in the understory plant community.” This is the third year of funding and her third year as a fellow. As a part of the fellowship position, Alexa will spend a week at Phipps to partake in science engagement activities including Phipps staff, local K-12 grade youth, and the general public. “I look forward to this opportunity to increase science awareness and practice my formal and informal science outreach skills,” Alexa said.
April 15, 2022
When an Ecologist is a Lab Rat
By Sarah Kyker, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate
What does the soil ecology lab at Holden have in common with a crime lab? More than you might think! In the soil ecology lab, we rely heavily on DNA sequences, just like crime labs. Crime labs use DNA sequences to match a suspect to a crime scene. We use DNA sequences to match species of fungi and bacteria to our forest soils. (Sidenote: We focus on bacteria and fungi in the soil because they are the most active decomposers!)
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April 7, 2022
Behind-the-Scenes Spring Phenology Monitoring
By Emma Dawson-Glass, Research Specialist
Spring is underway here in Northeast Ohio, meaning it’s time for the Stuble lab and our team of wonderful volunteers to get out in Bole Woods and start monitoring spring phenology. For those unfamiliar, phenology is the study of the timing of natural phenomena as it relates to seasonal changes. In our case, we’re monitoring the phenology of spring ephemerals—the wildflowers that come up in forest understories during the spring while the canopy is still open.
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March 17, 2022
A short tale about hemlock trees, bacteria and a nasty insect.
By David J. Burke, PhD, Vice President for Science and Conservation
Many of us love our native hemlock trees (Tsuga canadensis). They are beautiful, but more than that, they serve an important ecological role in many of our forests. Where they are found along streams and waterbodies, they cool the water and maintain cold water habitat necessary for many types of aquatic life. In addition, they are important bird habitat, and many moths and butterflies are found only (or mostly) in hemlock. Quick fact: Did you know that hemlock trees can live to be 550 years old? Amaze your friends!
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February 23, 2022
Na Wei, Ph.D., is Lead Author on Publication in Horticulture Research
Holden Forests & Gardens Scientist Na Wei, Ph.D., and her collaborators from Oakland University and the University of Pittsburgh decoded the scent of flowers and its influence on flower microbes.
Read moreFebruary 17, 2022
A story of becoming a scientist in the United States
Getting a PhD degree is never easy and perhaps more difficult for international students. One of the challenges that face many international students is visas, which grant our legal status to study in the United States.
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February 10, 2022
Get to know a scientist: Connor Ryan
By Emma Dawson-Glass, Research Specialist
Where do plants come from? No, we’re not talking about the birds and the bees or the sun and the soil. Many of our favorite ornamental plants have been specifically engineered to have showier flowers, grow taller, and resist disease, creating plants with little resemblance to their wild relatives. Ever wonder who comes up with these things, and puts them into practice? This week we talk to Connor Ryan – the Rhododendron Collections Manager within Holden’s Research Department – on how he got into collections and plant breeding.
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January 28, 2022
Evidence Based Gardening
By Connor Ryan, MS, Rhododendron Collections Manager
Lots of plants have problems in landscapes. Perhaps your Colorado spruce (Picea pungens) is losing all its lower leaves. Or your rhododendron’s stems keep dying. Or the leaves of your blueberry bush (Vaccinium) are completely yellow. How do you figure out what is causing the problem, and what is the solution? A common move for gardeners is to run to the local garden center, purchase fertilizer or a fungicide or an insecticide, and then use those products non-discriminately, praying that this will fix everything. While this can sometimes work, there resources for the average gardener to help address garden problems more effectively and sustainably.
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January 27, 2022
Claudia Bashian-Victoroff Awarded a BGCI ArbNet Grant
Claudia Bashian-Victoroff was awarded the BGCI ArbNet Grant for her collaboration with the Yerevan Botanical Garden in Armenia. The project will analyze mycorrhizal fungus community composition on the roots of oak species growing in collections at both the Yerevan Botanical Garden and at Holden Arboretum. More information can be found here.
January 14, 2022
Mushroom Identification: Results from the Holden Forests & Gardens Mushroom Month Foray!
By Claudia Bashian-Victoroff, MS, Research Specialist
Relative to plants and animals, identifying fungi presents unique challenges. First, the kingdom fungi is extremely species rich. While nearly 100,000 species of fungi have been discovered by science, estimates of the total number of existing species range up to 5.1 million!
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December 10, 2021
Science on Fridays with Holden: Roadmaps to building equitable and inclusive research experiences in STEM
By Juliana S. Medeiros, PhD, Plant Biologist
What can we do to create more equitable and inclusive STEM educational systems? This year, the Scientist Lecture Series is featuring speakers that have successfully run boots-on-the-ground institutional diversity initiatives. These leaders have strong records of advocacy and are employing innovative ideas to build anti-racist/anti-sexist programs, truly they are changing the system in support of a more diverse STEM workforce.
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December 2, 2021
Healthy Soils have a Healthy Dose of Decomposition: Celebrating World Soil Day
By Sarah Kyker, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate
December 5th marks World Soil Day. World Soil Day began in 2014, initiated by the United Nations, to focus attention on the importance of soil health. But what exactly is healthy soil? The soil ecology lab at Holden Forests & Gardens asks this question each and every day.
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November 12, 2021
Science on Fridays: Roadmaps to building equitable & inclusive research experiences in STEM
What can we do to create more equitable and inclusive STEM educational systems? This year, the Scientist Lecture Series will feature speakers that have successfully run boots-on-the-ground institutional diversity initiatives. These leaders have strong records of advocacy and are employing innovative ideas to build anti-racist/anti-sexist programs, truly they are changing the system in support of a more diverse STEM workforce.
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