Newsletter

Volume 18, Number 1
January - February 2001

Notes from the Visitor Center ...

• SAVE THE DATE: March 31-April 1.
See page 3 for a list of what’s planned.

• Bird-watching has always been a popular
pastime for our visitors — their lists include
spring warblers on the Wappinger Creek
Trail, and eastern bluebirds, tree swallows,
red-tailed hawks and ducks in the Lowlands.
Now these visitors can enjoy their hobby all
winter at the “Bird Viewing Station” in the
Gifford House. Shortly before the holidays.
Perennial Gardeners Diane Fageigren and
Margaret Eyring ‘planted’ a large hawthorne
branch in the armual bed and hung bird
feeders, strings of cranberries and pine cones
filled with peanut butter. Birds discovered
the bounty some two weeks later and now
come in flocks.

• We’re trying out a new kind of paper in
this issue of the lES Newsletter. “Domtar
Weeds” is made of non-tree, renewable
fibers: sugar cane and hemp. More about
Forest-free Domtar Weeds in the next issue.

The lES Newsletter ]s published by the
Institute of Ecosystem Studies, located at the
Mary Flagler Cary Arboretum in Millbrook,
New York.

Director: Gene E. Likens
Administrator: Joseph S. Warner
Head of Education: Alan R. Berkowitz
Newsletter editor: Jill Cadwallader

Address newsletter correspondence to the
editor at:

Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Education Program, Box R
Millbrook NY 12545-0178
e-mail: CadwalladerJ@ecostudies.org

Printing: Central Press, Millbrook, N.Y.

Gypsy Moths, Adelgids and the Science of Soils

Gypsy moths were expected in 1998 but
never showed up. Hemlock woolly adelgids,
whose arrival in the Mary Flagler Cary
Arboretum forests has been anticipated for
some 10 years, were finally found here last
summer. Hemlock bark beetles made their
appearance last summer as well, with
devastating consequences for the trees they
infested. For forest ecologist Gary Lovett,
these happenings - or non-happenings in the
case of the gypsy moth - are the kinds of
unexpected things that scientists expect in the
course of their work.

Over the past 10 years. Dr. Lovett has
monitored soil chemistry and nutrient
cycling in Arboretum forests as part of a
study called ‘Forest Responses to Stress and
Damage’, or FORSTAD’* for short. In the
course of this research, he became particu-
larly interested in two stresses, nitrogen
deposition from the atmosphere (from acid
precipitation), and gypsy moth attack. When
gypsy moths chew up leaves the nitrogen in
those leaves is digested and rains to the forest
floor in the moths’ frass (frass is insect
excrement) — what would be the combined
effect on the forest of acid deposition and
gypsy moth defoliation?

Scientific literature reports that insect attack
liberates nitrogen from the trees, and this
nitrogen is then lost in runoff to stream
water. In the course of his FORSTAD
research, however, Lovett found that gypsy
moth frass stimulated the growth of soil
microbes, which retained a large proportion
of the nitrogen. He also determined that any
nitrogen the microbes missed the trees are
capable of reabsorbing. To detail this
observation more precisely, he designed an
experiment to measure soil nitrogen during a
gypsy moth outbreak.

Planning for the expected 1998 defoliation
(see “A little entomology”, page 2), he set up
an experiment. Using paired forest plots, he
and research assistant Julie Hart fertilized
one set of plots with nitrogen to simulate
nitrogen deposition from acid deposition; the
other set, an experimental control, was left
untreated. Fertilization began in 1996 to
ensure substantial nitrogen levels in the trees
and soils. The plan, explains Lovett, was that
when tlie gypsy moths arrived he would
eliminate all moths on a subset of each set of
plots, using a virus that specifically targets
gypsy moth caterpillars. The study would
make it possible to measure the effects on
nutrient cycling of nitrogen deposition alone.

* FORSTAD was funded by a grant to the Institute of
Ecosystem Studies from the General Reinsurance
Corporation. Among the studies by other members of
the FORSTAD team are those that have led to the
discovery of the complex interactions in oak forests
that ultimately affect prevalence of Lyme disease.

Gary Lovett and Julie Hart look for signs of the
woolly adelgid on Arboretum hemlock trees.

of gypsy moth frass alone, and of the two
together, and to compare each to the other
test plots and to the control. The scientists
and the forest were ready, but the gypsy
moths never came.

Meanwhile, in a second study, Lovett and his
graduate student Lynn Christenson injected
an oak tree in early spring with a non-
radioactive isotope of nitrogen; tlie leaves
that grew that year were therefore “tagged”.
Some of the leaves were harvested and fed to
gypsy moth caterpillars housed in enclosures
in the lES Rearing Facility. The scientists
collected frass from the caterpillars, and, in
autumn, litterfall from beneath the oak.
Because the frass and the litterfall were
tagged, after Christenson spread them on
separate forest plots she could later follow the
nitrogen as it made its way through the soil.

Oak leaves take a long time to decompose
while frass dissolves when it’s wet, Lovett
explains. “Nitrogen from frass is transported
rapidly down into the soil and is retained by
the soil itself, in ways that we don’t com-
pletely understand. Nitrogen from the leaf
litter is released more slowly as the litter
decomposes, and may be more available to
plants.”

Dr. Lovett also discovered that there was no
loss of nitrogen from the soil, a direct
contradiction of reports by scientists
elsewhere. This is a good thing, he says.

“Oak trees aren’t fools. Nitrogen is scarce, so
in fall they resorb it from the leaves, store it
in twigs and use it again in spring.” If gypsy
continued on page 2

A LITTLE ENTOMOLOGY ...

• Gypsy moths were brought from Europe to New England by Leopold Trouvelot in 1 869. Trouvelot had hoped to
start a silk industry in the U.S. but instead introduced an insect that rapidly became a major pest of forest and
shade trees, especially oaks. Major episodes of defoliation by gypsy moth caterpillars typically occur every 9-1 0
years, most recently in 1 980-81 and 1 989-90, and so defoliation was predicted for 1 998. This didn’t happen,
however, because a fungus killed the caterpillars. lES ecologists are monitoring this fungus as well as the gypsy
moths.

• Hemlock woolly adelgids are tiny parasitic insects that suck sap from hemlock twigs. A clear indication that a
tree is hosting these parasites is the appearance of tiny, fluffy white bails — adelgid egg sacs — on the twigs. Left
untreated, the infected tree weakens and loses its needles; defoliation leads to death. Adelgids were introduced
into the Pacific Northwest in the 1 920s, probably from Japan. They turned up in Richmond, Virginia in the early
1950s and have been spreading into West Virginia and North Carolina and up into the Northeast at a rate of
approximately 30 miles a year since then.

• Hemlock bark beetles were recorded here in summer 2000, when lES workers found dying hemlock trees and
collected the insects that appeared to be responsible. Samples were sent to entomologists at the U.S. Department
of Agriculture who identified the invader as a native pest that generally shows up in response to drought.

Scientists assume, therefore, that the local infestation was due to the dry conditions of summer 1 999, and
because of ample rain during summer 2000 they don’t expect to see the beetles this coming summer. (This is
good news, because Hemlock bark beetles can kill a tree within several weeks!)

• Hemlock leaf scale - another sucking insect - has been around for some time but after lES scientists found
adelgids on the Arboretum and started intensifying their surveys, they discovered that some hemlocks had
serious scale infestations. It is unknown at this point if infection by hemlock leaf scale makes the trees more
susceptible to adelgids.

Gypsy Moths, Adelgids, Soils,

from page 1

moths eat leaves early in the summer, which
is when defoliation typically occurs, there is
tremendous nitrogen loss from the trees,
which must be able to recover a lot of this
nutrient to make leaves the following year.
“So,” he concluded, “it’s important for
nitrogen to be retained in soil and not lost
from the ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, as the fertilized oak plots wait
patiently for gypsy moths, the hemlock
woolly adelgid has begun to creep into a
different part of the Arboretum forest. Lovett
and Hart set up another, similar set of plots
in hemlock stands to monitor the effects of
the adelgid. They are considering injecting
selected trees with an insecticide to eliminate
the adelgids. Then, over the short-term, as
untreated trees die, changes in productivity,
species composition, and nutrient cycling
will be measured in the infested plots and
compared to the treated plots. Over the long-
term, Lovett will monitor the nature of soil
and nutrient cycling processes as other
species — probably oak, red maple and/or
black birch — move in to replace the dead
hemlocks.

And why do we care about nutrient cycling?
This is the process whereby materials
required for life enter and move through the
ecosystem, like the input of nitrogen from
the atmosphere and the weathering of rocks
to liberate calcium. “Nutrient cycling in a
forest is important,” Dr. Lovett explains,
“because it determines the system’s produc-

tivity over time — how well the forest grows,
and how quickly it recovers after distur-
bance.” Dr. Lovett’s long-term studies of
Arboretum oak and hemlock stands,
especially as affected by disturbances such as
insect attack, are an evolving record of forest
change. •

Research Support Staff Supports More Than Research

The Institute’s research support staff
comprises the many individuals who collect,
sample and measure at field sites and analyze,
count and do data processing in laboratories.
At any one time there are approximately 40
research assistants working with scientists at
the Institute’s labs in Millbrook as well as at
lES sites at the Hubbard Brook Experimental
Forest, in New Hampshire, and elsewhere
across the U.S. and abroad. Many of the
research assistants (“RAs”) also contribute
their free time and skills to their local
communities, and frequently to the larger
lES community as well. This column begins
a series of profiles of research support staff.

Julie Hart, RA in the Lovett Laboratory

It’s 4 a. m Julie Hart’s alarm clock won ’tgo off
for another three hours, but when the fire
company pager sounds from her desk, she’s up
and into her blue jumpsuit almost before the
91 1 dispatcher has finished reporting the nature
of the call. After meeting another EMT and an
ambulance driver at the firehouse, she spends
the hours until dawn assessing, caring for and
tramporting an ill or injured person to a local
hospital. By the time she returns home, it’s
almost time to start her day.

Hart, a volunteer Emergency Medical
Technician on the Town of Stanford’s Rescue
Squad, spends her workday as a research
assistant in Dr. Gary Lovett’s laboratory,
assisting with his investigations into the

effects on nutrient cycling of insect damage
to trees (see story beginning on page 1).

Eighty-eight lysimeters are collecting soil
water at sites across Lovett’s oak and
hemlock forest research plots, to measure the
quantity and the chemistry of water available
to trees. Lysimeters work on the siphon
principle, maintaining constant low-level
tension to draw water up from the soil: a
porous clay cup about the diameter of a
tennis ball is buried 30-60 cm [12-24 inches]
deep and connected to the above-ground
containers by a tube. One of Hart’s assign-
ments is to visit each lysimeter several times a
month to collect the water that has been
extracted from the soil - often from 200 ml
to 2 liters or more (7 ounces - 0.5 gallons)
per lysimeter. At this time of year, when the
Institute’s roads are closed and the forest
floor is snow-covered, she treks in on
snowshoes carrying the plastic sampling
bottles in her backpack.

Back in the lES laboratories, each soil water
sample is analyzed by research assistant
Denise Schmidt and her colleagues, and its
chemistry compared with that of precipita-
tion samples from th.e Institute’s Environ-
mental Monitoring Program and of through-
fall (water dripping off leaves, branches and
stems) collected on the Arboretum.

Hart’s other laboratory work includes
preparation of leaves and soil samples for

nitrogen measurements, as well as data
analysis. She currently is using a computer
model and existing meteorological and forest
canopy data to calculate the flow of water
through soil.

Her workday has ended, butfor eight evenings
duringjanuary and February Hart is sharing
her medical experience with IBS colleagues. The
Institute recently purchased an AED (auto-
mated external defibrillator), and Hart and
several other EMTs are teaching CPE/AED
classes at the Plant Science Building. At the end
of the series, approximately 50 EES employees
will be trained in these lifesaving techniques.

^ if if ^ if

Julie Hart has a bachelor’s degree in biology
from Bard College, in Annandale, New York.
She has been a research assistant at the
Institute since graduation in 1994, and her
early experience here included sampling ticks
and small mammals as part of the Lyme

New Face in Continuing Education

Public Weekend at IBS

Jamey Thompson, instmctor of biology and
environmental science at Maysville Commu-
nity College in Kentucky, was planning a
move to New York State. Checking out the
job situation on the Internet, he found a
posting for “Program Leader, Continuing
Education Program” at the Institute of
Ecosystem Studies. He looked up Continu-
ing Education on the lES Web site, was
impressed by what the program offers and
mailed off his resume. Two months later, he
was comfortably installed in the Continuing
Education Office, planning the winter
semester and developing new directions for
the program.

Jamey Thompson, new lES Program Leader
for Continuing Education.

The lES Continuing Education Program has
a strong ecological focus, and it was this that
especially impressed Thompson. “The
Institute’s work deals with how we, as a
global community, have an impact on our
own landscapes,” he says. “Our classes help
to reinforce in our students’ minds how we
should treat the landscape on a local scale,
especially around our homes, in an environ-
mentally sustainable way.”

The Institute has three certificate programs:
landscape design, gardening and natural
science illustration. Landscape design and
gardening programs have a solid ecological
focus and he plans to build on that founda-
tion. New courses will increase the emphasis
on organic options, including low- or no-
spray pest control, and the use of native
plants (or, at least, not planting invasive

species). And the benefits of these lessons
will extend beyond those to the students
themselves, Thompson explains. “We’ll also
be educating the marketplace, because when
our students shop, they’ll be requesting
native plants as well as services and products
that are environmentally sound.”

Mr. Thompson speaks enthusiastically about
new courses he is adding to the program. “We
have some land near the Gifford Tenant
House [next to the Gifford House Visitor and
Education Center\, and our new Perennial
Gardener, Diana Eagergren, is going to use it
as a classroom to teach Landscape Design
students how to prepare a garden plot.”
Tentatively scheduled for early June, tliis
one-day course will begin with a discussion
of soil nutrient and texture amendments and
will end with actual soil preparation by the
students. “Some of our students have strong
design skills but little practical experience in
preparing an area for a new landscape. This
hands-on class will be of tremendous benefit
to these students,” Thompson predicts,
adding that it also sets the stage for a new
venture for the Continuing Education
Program; a gardening class for children. The
prepared garden will be used for a multi-
session program beginning in June, he
explains, in which children and their parents
will learn how to plant and raise flowers and
vegetables. Details of both classes are in the
spring catalogue, available in late Eebruary. •

You say you don ’t have the need or the time to
pursue a certificate? Many Continuing
Education Program students take courses
individually, for personal interest and
enrichment. Prospective and returning students
may call 845-677-9643 or visit Continuing
Education on the lES Website at
ivww.ecostudies.org/cep. for course and
registration information.

The Continuing Education Program office,
which famey Thompson shares unth Program
Assistants Luanne Panarotti and Edith Keck, is
at the Gifford House Visitor and Education
Center, 181 Sharon Turnpike, Millhrook, N. Y.
Office hours are Monday and Wednesday,
8:30a.m.-lp.m., and Tuesday, Thursday and
Friday, 10.30 a.m.-3p.m.

Programs offered during March and April 2001
are listed in the calendar on page 4.

Hart, from previous page

disease ecology work; seed collection and
seed predation at Great Mountain Forest in
Connecticut; studies of the forest edge; and
even work in tlie Greenhouse when Becky
Curtis was on maternity leave. (Those of you
who attended the 25'*’ Anniversary Celebra-

tion in the Greenhouse in 1998 may
remember the gingerbread model of the
facility, done to scale and complete with tiny
candy plants. Hart, with an equally creative
colleague from the lES Education Program,
was the creator of that masterpiece .) •

March 31 and April 1

• Regional Artisan’s Market:

Locally made products for sale at the
Gifford House

• Raffle

• Continuing Education Program
information booth

• Volunteer Program information booth

• Light Refreshments

Free programs foraUages
will include:

SATURDAY, MARCH 31

• Raptor Ecology and Demonstration by
Jim Eyring

• At the Greenhouse ...

... Origami Class

... “Plant Power”

... Planting for Kids
... Economic Botany Trail

SUNDAY, APRIL 1

• Guided walk for families

• “Ask the Gardener”:

Q & A with Brad Roeller, Manager of
the lES Display Gardens

• Meet-the-author and book signing:

Mike Ruggiero, author oi Annuals with
Style and lES Continuing Education
Program instructor

• Pruning Demonstration and Practice

• Art Exhibit Opening:

“Remnants: Ancient Forests and City
Trees” by Prilla Smith Brackett

• Guided tour: Likens Laboratory and the
Plant Science Building laboratories

• Raffle Drawing at 3:45 p.m.

When the program is finalized,
a complete schedule of activities
will be published online at
www.ecostudies.org/welcome/new.html

Students in Grades 1-6,..

Sign up now for
Summer Ecology Day Camp

One-week sessions begin June 25-
There are two groups of campers, those
entering grades 2-4 and those entering
grades 5-7, in fall 2001.

• do ecology investigations

• hike

• sharpen your powers of observation

• do nature art projects ... and much more

Forregptmtioninformatio^
caU the lES Education Office at
845-677-7600 ext 316
Registration deadline: June 1

INSTITUTE OF
ECOSYSTEM STUDIES
Education Program
Box R

Millbrook, New York 12545-0178

Newsletter

Volume 18, Number 1
January - February 200 1

Nonprofit Org.
US Postage
PAID

Millbrook, NY
Permit No. 16

Printed on
100% Recycled
Paper

CONTINUING EDUCATION
For winter and spring semester program
information, or to request a catalogue, call the
Continuing Education office at 845-677-9643.
Programs during March and April are:

Gardenirig

Mar. 3: Spring Plant Propagation

Mar. 5 (4 sessions); Fundamentals of Gardening

Mar. 17 (6): Soil Science

Mar. 24: Basic Cultural Techniques for Perennials
Apr. 5 (6): Insect Pests and Diseases of Plants
Apr. 21(4); Plants for the Landscape: Woody Plants
Apr. 21 ; Spring Gardening Q and A
Apr. 28 (2): A New Landscape for Your Home!
Landscape Design

Mar. 10: History of Landscape Design

Mar. 28 (8): Landscape Design HI: Planting Design

Biology

Apr. 22 (2): Wild Plant Identification: Spring
Apr. 23 (4); Herbs: Garden to Kitchen
Apr. 26 (6): Nature’s Pharmacy: Herbal Remedies
Natural Science Illustration
Mar. 10 & 1 1 : Drawing in the Greenhouse
Mar. 13: How to Mat Your Masterpiece
Mar. 15-18: Pen and Ink 11: Illustration
Workshop

Apr. 6: Growing Yoiu" Small Business

Excursion

Mar. 5: Philadelphia Flower Show

* Visit Continuing Education on the lES Website, at
www.ecostudies.org/cep

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Perennial Garden Docents Program begins soon! For
information on this and other volunteer positions,
call Su Marcy at 845-677-7600 ext. 317.

THE ECOLOGY SHOP

New in the Shop ... jewelry made of sustainably
harvested materials from the Amazon rainforest ...
Burt’s Bees ® gardener's soap and hand salve ... for
children ... 52-things-to-do cards (rainy day, in-the-
car, nature) ... make-your-own kaleidoscope kits ...
in the Plant Room . . . mud gloves in assorted colors
Regional Artisan’s Market 10-4 on Saturday, March
31, and 11-4 on Sunday, April 1
Senior Citizens Days: 10% off on Wednesdays

Calendar

lES SEMINARS

Free scientific seminars are held each Friday from
September until May, at 11 a.m. in the Auditorium.
Mar. 2: Working with Nature: the Use of Natural
Disturbance Patterns to Guide Management of
Southern Pine Woodlands. Dr. Robert Mitchell,
Jones Ecological Research Center, Georgia
Mar. 9: The Role of Positive Interactions in Shore-
line Communities. Dr. Mark Bertness, Brown Univ.
Mar. l6: Jumping on the ‘Science as Inquiry’
Education Bandwagon: Bumps, Bruises and
Smooth Rides. Dr. Marianne Krasny, Cornell Univ.
Mar. 23: Linking Ecosystem Science and
Restoration Ecology: Making the Whole Greater
Than the Sum of the Parts. Dr. Christopher Craft,
Indiana Univ.

Mar. 30: Tree Seed Production, Small Mammals,
and the Dynamics of Northeastern Forests. Dr.
Jaclyn Schnurr, Idaho State Univ.

Apr. 6 : Whole Effluent Toxicity Testing and the
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System:
Examing the Assumption of Adequate Protection.
Dr. Paul White, Health Canada
Apr. 13: Title to be announced. Speaker:

Dr. Hank Loescher, Univ. of Florida

Apr. 20: Effects of Landscape Position on the

Biogeochemistry of Lakes in River Floodplains

and Deltas. Dr. Lance Lesack, Simon Fraser Univ.,

Canada

Apr. 27: Superorganism or a Big Pile of Bugs:
Colonial Physiology of the Fungus-Cultivating
Tem^Macrotermes micbaelsenL Dr. Scott Turner,
Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY
May 4: Cary Conference IX Speaker, TBA

HOURS

Winter Hours: October 1 - March 31
Public attractions are open Mon. - Sat., 9 a.m.-
4 p.m. & Sun. 1-4 p.m., with a free permit.

(Note: The Greenhouse closes at 3:30 p.m. daily.)

• Eree permits are required for visitors and are available
at The Ecology Shop or the Education Officeuntil one
hour before closing time.

The Ecology Shop is open Mon.- Fri., 11 a.m.-
4 p.m.. Sat. 9 a.m,-4 p.m. & Sun. 1-4 p.m.

(The shop is closed weekdays from 1-1:30 p.m.)

Hours, continued:

Summer hours begin April 1.

From April 1 through the end September the display
gardens, trails and roadways are open until 6 p.m., and
The Ecology Shop until 5 p.m.

MEMBERSHIP

Join the Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Benefits
include subscription to the newsletter, member’s rate
for courses and excursions, a 10% discount on lES
Ecology Shop purchases, and participation in a
reciprocal admissions program. Individual member-
ship: $40; family membership: $50.

Call the lES Development Office at 845-677-5343.

The Institute’s Aldo Leopold Society
In addition to receiving the benefits listed above,
members of The Aldo Leopold Society are invited
guests at spring and fall lES science updates.

Call the lES Development Office at 845-677-5343.

TO CONTACT lES ...

... for research, graduate opportunities, library
and administration:

Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Box AB, Millbrook NY 12545-0129
Tel: 845-677-5343 • Fax: 845-677-5976
Street address: Plant Science Building,

65 Sharon Tpke. (Rte. 44A), Millbrook, N.Y.

... for education, general information and The
Ecology Shop:

Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Education Program,

Box R, Millbrook NY 12545-0178
Tel; 845-677-5359 • Fax: 845-677-6455
The Ecology Shop: 845-677-7600 ext. 309
Street address; Gifford House Visitor and
Education Center, 181 Sharon Tpke. (Rte. 44A),
Millbrook, N.Y.

... BBS Website: www.ecostudies.org

For information on current lES public events and attractions, visit: www.ecostudies.org/welcome/ThisWeek.htmL
For garden tips, follow the link to the Perennial Garden Archives.