Lead Scientists: Karen Kuers, Erin Lindquist, Jerald Dosch, Kathleen LoGiudice, Jose-Luis Machado, Kathleen Shea, and Jeffrey Simmons
Potential Main Ecological Questions:
- How much carbon dioxide do different forest types common to the Eastern United States sequester and how does it change over time?
- How is terrestrial carbon influenced by abiotic (e.g., climate, soils physical and chemical properties) variables?
- How different are native plants versus non-native plants at sequestering carbon?
- What is the relationship between species richness/diversity and forest productivity?
Potential Secondary Ecological Questions:
- What are the unknowns and uncertainties of calculating aboveground productivity?
- What is the contribution of suburban forests to the mitigation of elevated carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in relation to other forests in the eastern United States?
Ecological Content: Forest ecology, natural history, plant physiology and growth, carbon storage, diversity, scaling (allometry), plant identification.
Application:
- The data generated from this activity can be used in your curriculum without additional sources of data.
- The data generated from this activity can be uploaded to EREN’s website and add a significant contribution to the Permanent Forest Plot Project’s database.
- The data from this activity can be compared with data from other EREN sites.
Scientific and mathematical background needed for students to participate in this activity:
- Understanding of photosynthesis, respiration, plant growth and carbon cycle
- Familiarity with spreadsheets and data management.
- Optional, but helpful skills: ability to calculate species diversity indices, regression analysis, two groups comparisons, equation fitting, log transformations
Logistics:
- Minimum number of three-hour labs required for this activity is one.
- The optimal number of three-hour labs for fully implementing this activity is two (one for data collection, and one for data analysis) or three (one additional lab for paper proofreading or project presentations).
Student Learning Outcomes:
A. Field Work and Data Entry:
Students will learn how to:
- set up a permanent forest plot
- describe and measure topographic variables
- map (optional), identify (optional), and measure trees at diameter-at-breast-height (dbh)
- manage data through data entry and proofreading
- calculate biomass and carbon using allometric growth equations (optional)
- collect soil data (optional)
- use internet resources for climate, soil, and forest area parameters
B. Hypothesis Formulation and Testing:
Guided Approach: Students will collect data directed at answering a specific question set by the instructor. The instructor may choose from EREN’s list of questions above or select one based on individual research interests.
Open-ended Approach: Students will generate their own questions and hypotheses of interest using the dataset they generate and/or from the larger shared data set from multiple sites. This approach is encouraged for upper-level students in smaller classes.
C. Student Reporting and Assessment:
Depending on the instructor’s interests and time reserved for the project students may develop and execute an oral presentation and/or write a scientific paper. In either assignment students will:
- synthesize and interpret a literature review
- analyze data using descriptive and/or inferential statistics
- design and interpret tables and figures
- interpret their data and contrast it to other studies’ data or findings
- discuss, share, and complete an assignment with peers and assess each other’s contributions and effort in a group project
Transferability: Instructors can use the permanent plot and data generated in class for independent research endeavors with students and other participating EREN faculty. Future classes can re-measure plots, set up new plots, or contrast their site data to other participating EREN sites using the online databases.
Project Protocols:
Students and faculty should use the research protocols available on the EREN website: PFPP Protocols
For non-field activities such as data analysis and reporting, faculty are encouraged to develop their own set of instructions using the information provided on the PFPP web page to fit their individual courses.