The Ecological Society of America has selected Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie and coauthors for the Mercer Award, in recognition of an outstanding, recently-published, ecological research paper by young scientists. In the paper “Phenological mismatch with trees reduces wildflower carbon budgets.” J. Mason Heberling, MacKenzie, and coauthors “show creative and powerful integration of historical records and contemporary experiments covering many species. They tell a convincing and important scientific story with notably clear writing and compelling visuals. The use of historical phenological observations, the oldest of which were made by Henry David Thoreau in the 1850s, alongside long-term temperature records, contemporary garden experiments, and a simulation model is the icing on the cake, extending the timespan of the historical data and providing a ‘hook’ to engage the interest of the media and the general public.”
More about the research on spring wildflower phenology from Schoodic Institute.
More from the University of Maine.
