The Acer Climate and Socio-Ecological Research Network (ACERnet) is an international consortium of scientists studying climate impacts on sugar maple and maple syrup production. With funding from the Department of Interior Northeast Climate Science Center, our research focuses on the relationship between sap quality and climate, and how producers can and are adapting to climate variability and change. With core sap collection sites from southern Virginia to northern Quebec, and Massachusetts to Indiana, we are collecting data on sap quality across a broad range of climate conditions. We are always interested in expanding our network of sap quality observations and data – from adding producer hosted sample collection sites to historical data. We are also surveying maple syrup producers to understand how tapping seasons are changing and how producers respond to this change.
Investigators
Selena Ahmed is an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Food Systems at Montana State University where she leads the Agroecology and Phytochemistry Group of the Food and Health Lab. Her research, teaching, and service interests are at the intersection of the ecological, cultural, and health aspects of food systems. Selena’s research program focuses on the effects of environmental and management variation on multiple dimensions of agroecosystems and links to livelihoods, dietary quality, and food security. Central questions of her research program include: What are effects of climate change on specialty crop quality and how does this vary with agro-ecosystem management? How do health outcomes of local food systems reflect the ecology, culture, and policy of a place? This work includes local, regional, and international projects that seek to inform evidence-based management plans and outreach to promote environmental and human wellbeing. These interdisciplinary projects draws from training in Economics (BA from Barnard College), Ethnobotany (MSc from the University of Kent at Canterbury), Biology / Plant Sciences (PhD from the City University of New York and the New York Botanical Garden), and Biomedical Sciences and Chemical Ecology (postdoctoral training from the NIH TEACRS program at Tufts University).
Autumn Brunelle is a member of the Dartmouth College class of 2015. She graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies and Native American Studies where she focused on conservation and environmental education. Her research interests are based around environmental education and outreach efforts for local environmental issues. Autumn has developed a curriculum for local schools and community programs regarding STEM and maple syrup. She has also work with and developed environmental outreach programs for non-profits in Hawaii and Washington D.C concerning climatic impacts. After graduating in the Spring of 2015, Autumn worked as a member of the Student Conservation Association’s National Parks Academy. This allowed her to assist in research and conservation efforts for an endangered salmon monitoring project in Point Reyes National Seashore. She is currently working as a Natural Resources Education Specialist for the Bloomington, Indiana Parks and Recreation department.
Boris Dufour
Ryan Huish is an Assistant Professor of Biology at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, with a background in botany and cultural anthropology. His research interests incorporate an interdisciplinary approach to address basic and applied questions in ethnobotany, ecology, and plant conservation. Some current research projects he is involved with include Tongan medical ethnobotany, community-mediated conservation of the sandalwood tree, the conservation of several rare Southern Appalachian plants, and the dynamic relationships between maples, climate, and society. He currently leads the Southern Appalachian Maple Research Activities (SAMaRA) Team of researchers and community members, whose aim is to conserve sugar maple and assess alternative maple species for sugaring in the region, and to increase awareness of maple ecology, conservation, and socio-economic potential through research and educational activities.
David Lutz is a forest ecologist at Dartmouth College. He has a background in simulation modeling, remote sensing, and ecological economics. His research investigates forest ecosystem services and their response to environmental and anthropogenic disturbance through the use of ecological and economic computer models. He is particularly focused on calculating the value of non-market and biogeochemical processes and properties of forests and elucidating tradeoffs between these services under future climate and management scenarios.
Toni Lyn Morelli is a USGS ecologist with the Department of Interior Northeast Climate Science Center (necsc.umass.edu) and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Her research focuses on translational ecology, using field studies, geospatial analyses, ecological modeling, and genetic techniques to facilitate natural resource management and habitat and species conservation in the face of climate and land use change. In addition to exploring the effects of climate change on the culture and ecology of sugar maple, her current projects include identifying climate change refugia, revealing mechanistic drivers of climate change, studying the effects of warming temperatures and changing snow patterns on montane and Arctic communities, and developing decision analysis tools for climate adaptation. She has also worked for the U.S. Forest Service and collaborated on research throughout Africa.
Josh Rapp is a plant ecologist interested in how life-history influences the interactions of plants with t
heir environment, population dynamics, and ecosystem processes. His research addresses fundamental conceptual issues in ecology, but is also motivated by the need to understand biodiversity and ecosystem response to pervasive environmental change, and to predict how these changes will affect human societies and economies. He has been studying resource dynamics and masting of sugar maples at Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts since 2011, and leads the sap collections there. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Charles Bullard Fellow in Forest Research at Harvard Forest.
Kristina Stinson is a plant ecologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Environmental Conservation. She is interested in the responses of individual species and populations to global change. She combines ecological, physiological, and genetic data to assess the impacts of environmental stresses on plant growth and reproduction, and potential implications for changes in species distributions. This work has both theoretical and applied value, and frequently aims to provide practical guidelines to stakeholders interested in ecological restoration and conservation. Examples of her research include: characterizing the disruption of plant-mycorrhizal symbioses by invasive plant species; modeling source-sink dynamics of plant invasions to help prioritize eradication efforts; identifying priority populations of alpine plants for conservation; and quantifying the effects of climate change on plant chemistry, resource allocation and reproduction.
