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Mike O'Brien and Dr. Tom Horton
The MRGP is made famous in large part to its old-growth hemlock forest. While
we still have a beautiful stand of aging hemlocks, despite persistent hemlock
woolly adelgid feeding infestation, there appears to be little potential for
regeneration even if deer densities can be reduced. This is especially the case in
our younger, hardwood forests that were abandoned farm fields only 75 years
ago.
Hemlocks rely on symbiotic relationships with fungi living in the soil. Hemlocks
provide carbohydrates and receive nutrients in return. It is possible that these
young forests, with disturbed farm soils, are lacking the complement of soil
microbes necessary for hemlock regeneration.
It is this problem that brought Mike to the Gorge. By investigating the success of
hemlock seedlings grown in different soil types with different complements of
fungi (identified only with the aid of genetic techniques) we hope to have a better
understanding as to the importance of fungi. At the Gorge, Mike made a second
hypothesis that perhaps the presence of fungi in the soil is not enough to
guarantee the survival of little hemlock saplings? What if an adult hemlock tree is
required to “bank roll" the fungi so the fungi only “gives” nutrients to the little
sapling and does not “take” carbohydrates. Mike believes that without adult trees
the fungi can actually parasitize the little hemlock! Mike has expanded his project
at the Gorge to several major research forests in the northeast in order to run
experiments to test this hypothesis.
we still have a beautiful stand of aging hemlocks, despite persistent hemlock
woolly adelgid feeding infestation, there appears to be little potential for
regeneration even if deer densities can be reduced. This is especially the case in
our younger, hardwood forests that were abandoned farm fields only 75 years
ago.
Hemlocks rely on symbiotic relationships with fungi living in the soil. Hemlocks
provide carbohydrates and receive nutrients in return. It is possible that these
young forests, with disturbed farm soils, are lacking the complement of soil
microbes necessary for hemlock regeneration.
It is this problem that brought Mike to the Gorge. By investigating the success of
hemlock seedlings grown in different soil types with different complements of
fungi (identified only with the aid of genetic techniques) we hope to have a better
understanding as to the importance of fungi. At the Gorge, Mike made a second
hypothesis that perhaps the presence of fungi in the soil is not enough to
guarantee the survival of little hemlock saplings? What if an adult hemlock tree is
required to “bank roll" the fungi so the fungi only “gives” nutrients to the little
sapling and does not “take” carbohydrates. Mike believes that without adult trees
the fungi can actually parasitize the little hemlock! Mike has expanded his project
at the Gorge to several major research forests in the northeast in order to run
experiments to test this hypothesis.
Project: Facilitated succession towards a climax community at the Mianus River
| Mike O'Brien, SUNY ESF lab |
| Mike planting hemlock seeds into MRGP soil |