August 22, 2024
Thesis title: OAK RECRUITMENT IN YOUNG FORESTS: MODELING THE ROLE OF FOREST CHARACTERISTICS BEFORE DISTURBANCE AND THEIR INTERACTIONS WITH THE ABIOTIC ENVIRONMENT
June 4, 2024
Our white oak (Quercus alba) assisted migration experiment is progressing nicely! Seedlings are growing at the Mira Llyod Dock Resource Conservation Center, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. We are growing natural populations from climates warmer than State College up to white oak's southernmost range limit (all the way to Georgia). We seek to understand how populations will respond to warmer climates and to delineate guidelines for assisted migration and seed movement. Mary McCafferty and Nathan LaDuke have been doing a fantastic job! Grateful to Annetta Ayers and her team!
January 29, 2024
This award recognizes a team of two or more Penn State faculty researchers for their collaborative, interdisciplinary research efforts on a topic within one of the five IEE themes that have benefited society.
July 17, 2023
Her talk "Forest trees adaptation to climate: Building on the legacy of genecology to anticipate responses to climate and guide seed movement" reflected on the importance of ecological genetics in helping build the reforestation pipeline to maintain adapted and resilient forests.
June 26, 2023
Leites talk "The role of provenance trials and common gardens in understanding intraspecific genetic variation in responses to a changing climate" reflected on the importance of recovering and reanalyzing data from old forestry provenance trials to advance our understanding of intraspecific variation and guide seed movement under a changing climate.
May 1, 2023
Leites, L. and Benito-Garzón, M. 2023. Forest tree species adaptation to climate across biomes: Building on the legacy of ecological genetics to anticipate responses to climate change. Global Change Biology. doi:10.1111/gcb.16711
August 25, 2022
August 25, 2022
Joshua, a former undergraduate research assistant in our lab has now joined us in the Ecology graduate program. Josh will be modeling mixed-oak forests regeneration.
January 10, 2022
Leites is collaborating with colleagues on adaptation to climate of forest tree species. Look ahead for future publications!
April 30, 2021
March 25, 2021
Alex's outstanding research modeling and providing decision support tools for degraded forests was also recognized in the Student Poster Competition of the 2020 Society of American Foresters National Convention (3rd place) and has been disseminated through publications and webinars. Congrats Alex!
November 24, 2020
Chen, X., L. Leites. 2020. The importance of land-use legacies for modeling present-day species distributions. Landscape Ecology. 35:2759–2775. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01119-0
October 29, 2020
October 16, 2020
August 17, 2020
July 16, 2020
February 24, 2020
Pike, C., K. Potter, P. Berrang, B. Crane, J. Baggs, L. Leites, T. Luther. 2020. New seed collection zones for the eastern US: the Eastern Seed Zone Forum. Journal of Forestry. 118(4): 444–451.
