PELLSTON, Mich. — For a team of field researchers, the breathtaking autumn landscape in northern Michigan isn’t just a view, it’s their office.
Dr. Ella Segal, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Classen Lab at the University of Michigan’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, used a power drill to install automated dendrometers last week in a forest at the U-M Biological Station.
The devices will record tree growth.
“We are especially interested in growth throughout the winter,” said Karin Rand, a UMBS researcher and manager of the Classen Lab, who shared her photos at the Pellston campus from Oct. 19-22.
The team also put out decomposition bags with acorns in them to see how they break down and contribute to nutrient cycling in the forest.
“Acorns are a huge source of carbon falling onto the ground, so we want to understand how that contributes overall to temperate forest nutrient cycling,” Rand said.
The acorn project is in collaboration with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, an independent, nonprofit environmental research organization based in New York.
The tree-growth project, which examines winter respiration, is part of the ongoing study of “Changing Winters,” an emerging area of research excellence at UMBS.
The historic research and teaching campus founded in 1909 comprises more than 10,000 forested acres surrounded by rivers, lakes and wetlands in Pellston, about 20 miles south of the Mackinac Bridge.
Holding more than a century of scientific records and year-round infrastructure, UMBS is one of the most well-studied places on the planet showing change over time.
Targeting all facets of changing winters, the field station brings together an interdisciplinary group of researchers spanning ecology, climate science, hydrology, engineering, microbiology, public health and human dimensions across eight U-M schools and colleges.
“Winter is not an inactive season,” said Dr. Aimée Classen, director of UMBS and a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at U-M. “It’s the organizing force that has been ignored for far too long.”
She said winter synchronizes when water and nutrients are stored and released, when plants grow and animals move, when nutrients cycle, pathogens spread, and ecosystems recover. It is also the time of year when the Great Lakes evaporate most of their water.
Classen’s research group has been exploring how changes in winter — snowpack, freeze-thaw events and nutrient transport — impact terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
“Human systems including roads, water infrastructure, agriculture, recreation and public health were built around seasonal rhythms that are now increasingly unstable,” Classen said. “When winter becomes unpredictable, those systems decouple, and the consequences cascade in ways we are only beginning to understand.”
Learn more about the Classen Lab on the website for the Ecosystem Ecology and Environmental Change Group.
Scroll below to view a photo gallery of fall field research photos shot by Karin Rand.
The University of Michigan Biological Station serves as a gathering place to learn from the natural world, advance research and education, and inspire action. We leverage over a century of research and transformative experiences to drive discoveries and solutions to benefit Michigan and beyond.
Our vast campus engages all of the senses. Its remote, natural setting nurtures deep thought and scientific discovery.
Founded in 1909, UMBS supports long-term research and education through immersive, field-based courses and features state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for data collection and analysis to help any field researcher be productive. It is where students and scientists from across the globe live and work as a community to learn from the place.
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