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.
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".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
October 30, 2018
Abby will be studying the interactions between adaptation to climate and competition in the Black Walnut Provenance Study located on campus
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.
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.
August 2, 2018
July 25, 2018
Joshua Rittenhouse's undergraduate research featured in Penn State News
May 18, 2018
April 21, 2018
Xin Chen and Zhiyue Xia present their research.