Featured Projects
Ecological restoration seeks to improve degraded ecosystem functions such as carbon storage, removal of nutrient pollution, and regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. These functions are primarily governed by microbes living in the soil, yet these microbial communities are not explicitly considered or monitored as a part of most restoration efforts. This group of research projects seeks to understand the impact of ecological restoration of cranberry bogs on the structure and function soil microbial communities in restored cranberry bogs. Using genetic and genomic techniques, we can survey the thousands of microbial species residing in the soil; we can monitor how they change over time; and we can associate those changes with functions of interest to understand which restoration methodologies produce the best outcomes.
This group of research projects investigates how key soil features and ecosystem functions change over time in sites that are developing under different management scenarios. Specifically, we compare the development of soil properties and functions associated with nitrogen cycling and greenhouse gas flux across sites that fall along a restoration trajectory across active cranberry farms, young retired farms, old retired farms, flooded former farms, ecologically restored former farms, and natural reference wetlands with no history of cranberry farming. Results of this work inform not only our understanding of how ecosystems develop and function over time under different hydrologic and management scenarios, but also informs the practice of restoration.
This project seeks to understand how amphibian and reptile communities respond to ecological restoration. We conduct a comprehensive survey on herpetofauna (amphibians and reptiles) at restored and retired former cranberry bogs using a combination of passive and active sampling techniques. We survey both wetland and upland habitats to document and ultimately, understand (1) how different amphibian and reptile species colonize restored wetland complexes; (2) how the community structure of amphibians and reptiles change before and after restoration; and (3) how the habitat structure and community composition change with time after the active restoration intervention.