Affiliated Researchers
Dr. Matt Ayres, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, Matthew.P.Ayres@Dartmouth.edu
Dr. Ayres and his lab group (including Carissa Aoki, Charlie Governali and Jeff Lombardo) are studying causes and consequences of the recent expansion of the southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis) into the New Jersey Pinelands.
Dr. Ken Clark, USDA Forest Service, kennethclark@fs.fed.us
Dr. Clark has set up a series of eddy flux towers at the field station and in the surrounding forests to monitor microclimatological data together with measures of forest biomass as a means of improving the forest fire predictions models of the pine barrens ecosystem.
Dr. Samantha Chapman, Villanova University, samantha.chapman@villanova.edu
In cooperation with the USDA Forest Service Dr Chapman is examining how insect defoliation interacts with fire to regulate nitrogen cycling in the Silas Little Experimental forest.
Dr. Michael Gallagher, USDA Forest Service, michaelgallagher@fs.fed.us
Dr. Gallagher works with an interdisciplinary team of ecologists, physicists, engineers, meteorologists, and wildland fire managers to quantify forest vegetation, fire behavior, and fire effect via remote sensing and physical approaches. The results of this work inform physics-based numerical modeling efforts aimed at predicting fire spread, investigations of fire spread and fire environment interactions, and ecological outcomes of prescribed fire and wildfire events. Mike also participates in wildland fire operations locally and assists with federal crews responding to large fires elsewhere. Mike is also interested in physiological responses of plants to disturbances, especially those relating to climate change.
Dr. Nick Skowronski, USDA Forest Service
Dr Skowronski’s current research focuses on the quantification and analysis of the structural characteristics of forest canopies and how this relates to carbon and water cycles. His work is split between developing methods for using LiDAR and other remotes sensing techniques for wildfire mitigation and studying how forest functionality changes after disturbance.
Visiting Scientists
Dr. Yuqing Geng, School of Water and Soil Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, PR China
Dr. Geng pursued her interest in soil enzymes by examining soil enzymatic activity as influenced by forest thinning and soil disruption at the field stations Parker Preserve research plots.
Dr. Liliane Ruess, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin
Dr. Ruess visited the station in the summer of 1999. She worked with John Dighton and Max Haggblom on trophic interactions of fungi and fungiverous nematodes and the potential use of phospholipid fatty acid analysis in tracing fungal selectivity by nematodes.
Dr. Tatyana Tugay, Institute for Microbiology, National Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine, Kiev
Dr. Tugay worked for three months on a collaborative NSF funded project with John Dighton, investigating the influence of ionizing radiation on the germination of fungal spores and growth responses of emerging hyphae. Numerous interesting effects of long-term exposure to ionizing radiation are emerging in these soil fungi isolated from around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The Rutgers component of the work also included Patrick McDermott of Rutgers REHS Department.
Dr. Howard Ginsberg, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, University of Rhode Island
Dr. Russell Burke, Department of Biology, Hofstra University
Eric L. Rulison, Research Associate Department of Plant Sciences, University of Rhode Island
In the Pinelands these researchers are studying the ecology of ticks and their small vertebrate hosts, as part of a project on the ecological reasons for the geographical distribution of Lyme disease. Dr’s. Ginsberg & Burke are among the PI’s of the NSF Award (Emerging Infectious Disease Award EF-0914476) Lyme Gradient Project.
Dr. Brent Helliker, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Helliker examines natural processes and develops methods to measure them. By examining the natural abundance of stable isotopes abiotic processes (e.g. precipitation and biomass burning) and biotic processes (e.g. photosynthesis and respiration) in the forest can be more clearly understood.