Joshua Gershey successfully defends his MS thesis

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

White Oak (Quercus alba) assisted migration experiment

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!

Leites and Muth receive the Translational Research Award from the Institute of Energy and the Environment (IEE)

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.

Leites speaks at the Forest Genetics Conference 2023: Discovery and Innovation in Changing Climates.

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.

Leites speaks at the Schatz Symposium and the Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference 2023

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.

Check our new publication in Global Change Biology 2023

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

Check our new publications

August 25, 2022

Joshua Gershey joins the MS in Ecology program.

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.

Laura Leites is at the Université de Bordeaux-INRAe this spring

January 10, 2022

Leites is collaborating with colleagues on adaptation to climate of forest tree species. Look ahead for future publications!

Joshua Gershey receives 1st place for best poster at the Penn State Undergrad Research Exposition

April 30, 2021

Alex Curtze receives Penn State Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award

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!

Check our new publication in Landscape Ecology

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

Alex Curtze presents his research at the SAF National Convention and to the Penn State Center for Private Forests

October 29, 2020

Xin Chen successfully defends his dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Chen!

October 16, 2020

Joshua Gershey receives a CAS Undergraduate Research Award to work on ecological genetics of black walnut

August 17, 2020

Lauren Onofrio and Josh Rittenhouse successfully defend their theses...on the same day! Congratulations to both!

July 16, 2020

Check our new article on Seed Zones for the NE USA

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.

Leites and Onofrio present their research at the 2019 ESA Annual Meeting

August 30, 2019

Leites gave a talk titled "Evidence of the growth-cold tolerance trade-off in eastern North America broadleaf deciduous species". Onofrio and Leites presented a poster titled "Modeling genetic differences in juvenile height growth in Juglans nigra populations".

Welcome Sina Sanei and Samuel Dannenberg to our lab

August 1, 2019

Sina will be supporting our research on delineating seed zones for Pennsylvania and Samuel is starting a MS in Forest Resources focusing on species-specific growth-climate relations and impacts of spotted lanternfly on forests.

Abby Jamison and Garrett Evans are awarded for their poster presentations

May 1, 2019

Abby Jamison received an honorable mention at the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Ecological Society of America Meeting. Garrett Evans received second place for best poster in the Physical Sciences category at the Penn State 2019 Undergraduate Research Exhibition.

Check our new publication on adaptation to climate in broadleaf decidous species

March 20, 2019

Leites, L; G. Rehfeldt, K. Steiner. 2019. Adaptation to climate in five eastern North America broadleaf deciduous species: Growth clines and evidence of the growth-cold tolerance trade-off. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics. 37:64-72.

Undergraduate research assistants Abbigail Jamison and Garret Evans receive research grants from the College of Agricultural Sciences

December 18, 2018

Abby and Garret will advance our studies of forest tree species adaptation to climate focusing on black walnut and red maple respectively.

Xin Chen receives a competitive research grant from the College of Agricultural Sciences

December 6, 2018

Xin will digitize the location of charcoal hearths in the south of Pennsylvania to subsequently test the legacy effects of charcoal making on the presence and abundance of important tree species.

Abbigail Jamison receives Undergraduate Research Award from the Schatz Center For Tree Molecular Genetics

October 30, 2018

Abby will be studying the interactions between adaptation to climate and competition in the Black Walnut Provenance Study located on campus

We are using UAS to measure differences in phenology of black walnut provenances

September 25, 2018

In collaboration with Drs. M. McDill and D. Miller, we are using UAS and multispectral images to measure phenology differences among black walnut provenances growing in a provenance trial.

We are starting research in a long-term black walnut provenance study

August 3, 2018

Laura Leites is taking over responsibilities for a range-wide black walnut provenance study and our lab is starting new research projects this Fall.

Check our recent publications

August 2, 2018

Our lab in the news - July

July 25, 2018

Joshua Rittenhouse's undergraduate research featured in Penn State News

Welcome Lauren and Josh to the graduate program

May 18, 2018

Our lab at the US-IALE Annual Meeting 2018

April 21, 2018

Xin Chen and Zhiyue Xia present their research.