Harvard Forest CTFS-ForestGEO Mapped Forest Plot since 2014

To investigate the forest dynamics across a larger range of scales in which many processes operate, Harvard Forest (HF) researchers, with assistance from the Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) and the Smithsonian Institute’s Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO), completed an initial census of all woody stems within a 35 ha plot located at the Harvard Forest in 2014. The HF MegaPlot is part of a global array of large-scale plots established by CTFS whose goals are to increase sampling efforts into temperate forests to explore ecosystem processes beyond population dynamics and biodiversity. The geography and size of the HF MegaPlot (500 m x 700 m) is designed to include a continuous, expansive, and varied natural forest landscape. The strategic plot location will yield opportunities for the study of forest dynamics and demography while capturing a large amount of existing NSF funded LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) science infrastructure (e.g. eddy flux towers, gauged sections of a small watershed, existing smaller permanent plots) and a century of observations and studies. The HF MegaPlot will enable an integrated study of ecosystem processes (e.g., biogeochemistry, hydrology, carbon dynamics) and forest dynamics by melding the past with current and future forest research. The second census was conducted during the summers of 2018 and 2019 but did not contain the central swamp portion of the plot.