Current Research Projects

NE SARE: An Integrated Approach to Developing Nutrient Management Schemes for Container-Grown Nursery Crops – This project is led By Dr. Gladis Zinati and is looking at the current  nursery practices for cultivation of woody perennial ornamentals. We are testing the utility of adding mycorrhizal inocula to ectomycorrhizal, arbuscular mycorrhizal and ericoid mycorrhizal plants to enhance growth and reduce fertilizer and watering needs in an attempt to reduce nutrient run-off. The projects works with extension officers to provide education and training for the nursery industry in New Jersey and many of the experiments are conducted in the local nurseries.

USDA Forest Service: Atmospheric Deposition of Pollutants at the Rutgers University Pinelands Field Station (Silas Little Experimental Forest) – This project is evaluating the atmospheric deposition of nutrients into the forest.

NSF: REU Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Projects based on studies in the New Jersey Pinelands. – This project is centered around the New Jersey pine barrens, but involves a number of faculty mentors in Biology, Chemistry and Physics from the Camden Campus. Students spend an orientation period at the field station, followed by ten weeks of focused research under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Each week seminars educate students on the process and ethics of research.

NSF: International Research Experience for Students: Impacts of Forest Floor Manipulations and the Problem of Post Harvest Residue Removal for Biofuels. – This project is tied the forest floor manipulation experiment being carried out in the Parker Preserve (New Jersey Conservation Foundation) http://www.njconservation.org/html/preserves/franklinparker.htm and to the research being carried out at the Finnish Forestry Research Institute (Metla)  (Dr. Helja-Sisko Helmisaari) http://www.metla.fi/index-en.html. Each year four undergraduate students will participate in their own sub-section of these research efforts both in New Jersey and Finland. The New Jersey pine barrens project is a thinning and forest floor manipulation experiment following the ecological changes associated with replacement of ericaceous understory with a graminoid understory in the thinned forest. The Finnish component will study the implication of clear felling and complete removal of non-timber tree products and leaf litter for biofuels.

New Jersey Conservation Foundation (Parker Preserve) http://www.njconservation.org/html/preserves/franklinparker.htm – This project involves a thinning and forest floor manipulation experiment following the ecological changes associated with replacement of ericaceous understory with a graminoid understory in the thinned forest. It is thought that this may have been the structure of these forests in pre-colonial times. The experimental manipulations will investigate nutrient and carbon dynamics, tree performance and the success of generating a mixed species graminoid community from seed bank or by seeding with and without mycorrhizal inoculation.

Mesocosm studies of the effects of prescribed burning and forest floor disturbance – This project takes some of the components of the Parker Preserve project (above) in combination with burning to follow the fate of soil nutrients with forest floor manipulations of burning, soil disturbance and understory vegetation removal. The experiment is set up under replicated individual trees within the field station property.

Influence of gypsy moth defoliation on carbon dynamics and nutrient dynamics in soil – This project has arisen from three successive years of gypsy moth attack. In combination with the Forest Service, we have looked at the stand net carbon budget using eddy flux data. We are looking at the changes in chemistry of consumed leaves and the new flush of leaves post attack as well as decomposition of and mineralization from decomposing frass.