New England Forests

How have New England forests changed over the last 14,000 years? What insights does that history provide as we deal with present-day and future climate change?

Through the analysis of pollen preserved in the sediments of ordinary lakes, we can reconstruct a series of major changes in forest composition that have occurred over past millennia in response to variations in climate. This talk explores the methods of paleo-ecology, the findings of decades of research in New England, and the lessons from the past for conservation and forest management.

Wyatt Oswald is a Professor of Environmental Science at Emerson College in Boston, where he teaches courses on ecology and earth science. He is also a Research Associate at the Harvard Forest, Harvard’s center for research and education in forest ecology and conservation, located in the town of Petersham in north-central Massachusetts. In his research, he analyzes natural archives, like lake sediments and tree rings, to reconstruct past changes in climate, vegetation, and fire. He has worked in Alaska, the western US, and New England.