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GREG BREED
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JOSH RAPP Postdoctoral Fellow rapp.joshua@gmail.com I am interested in how forests respond to environmental change. My PhD research at Wake Forest University investigated how variation in climate in time and space affects growth and survival of trees and epiphytes in the Peruvian Andes. Now at Harvard Forest, I am focused on another stage of the tree life cycle important for the maintenance of plant populations – seed production. Masting, the synchronous and episodic production of large seed crops, is a common plant reproductive strategy, (Read more) |
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NORAH WARCHOLA Postdoctoral Fellow norah.warchola@gmail.com I am primarily a landscape and behavioral ecologist that works with a variety of Lepidoptera. My current work at Harvard Forest focuses on the Fender’s blue butterfly (Icaricia icarioides fenderi), an endangered species found in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. I am studying the demography and movement of this species and how they react to prescribed burns of their prairie habitat. In the past, I have primarily worked with temperate fruit feeding nymphalid butterflies; studying their movement in fragmented landscapes and the environmental cues they use to make movement decisions. |
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RUI ZHANG Postdoctoral Fellow ruizhang01@fas.harvard.edu Website I study long-term population dynamics. I collaborate with Anne Jäkäläniemi from Finland and Perry de Valpine from UC Berkeley to examine plant population dynamics in disturbed systems. My previous work at Penn State includes responses of invasive thistle species to disturbance and climate change, and dispersal of wind-dispersed species under climate change. |
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PAUL SEVERNS Postdoctoral Fellow paulseverns@hotmail.com I am broadly interested in evolutionary ecology and understanding how human activities influence patterns of biodiversity and facilitate changes in species interactions. As a conservation biologist, I believe that more effective approaches to conserving rare species will be gained when evolutionary perspectives (genetics, microevolution, selection) are integrated with demographic, behavioral, and traditional studies in population ecology and life history. While butterflies hold a long held interest for me (since I was 6 years old) and I am naturally drawn towards butterfly-plant interactions, I also study rare plant genetics, terrestrial mollusks, solitary bees, lichens, and pollination biology. I frequently experience nose attacks by endangered butterflies. |
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ANNE JÄKÄLÄNIEMI Researcher for the Finnish Forest and Park Services anne.jakalaniemi@gmail.com I work for the Finnish Forest and Park Services (Metsähallitus), in Kuusamo, Finland. I have done research work in Oulanka Research Station (Thule Institute, University of Oulu). My major research fields are plant ecology, plant population and regional dynamics and conservation biology. Special interests concern the ecology and population biology of orchids and riparian plants and how the environmental change or habitat quality affects the survival of threatened plant populations. The effects of climate change on northern plants are also included in my field of study. I am a member of the Orchid Specialist Group in Species Survival Commission (IUCN), which operates worldwide for orchid conservation and research. |
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KEALA CUMMINGS Lab Manager and Field Technician kcummings@fas.harvard.edu I graduated from Scripps College in 2009. My thesis work focused on rates of seed germination and dormancy as predictors of species success in invaded California grasslands. After graduation I decided to defer grad school to walk the world a bit. I've worked on tree demography in Costa Rica, sedimentation rates of freshwater marshes in Maryland, fire and herbicide treatments of invasive plants in Zion National Park, and conservation and restoration of endangered chaparral and grassland ecosystems in Southern California. I assist Norah Warchola, Josh Rapp and Anne Jäkäläniemi in their research and otherwise "fix what needs fixin' and do what needs doin'." |