Forestry Research

Great Lakes Research Center: One Year Old and Growing

Tue, 4 Jun 2013 10:53:37 -0400

This time last year, the finishing touches were just being put on Michigan Technological University’s Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC). Researchers were starting to move in, and plans were being made for a mid-summer building dedication.

What a difference a year makes. Now celebrating its first anniversary, the GLRC is fast becoming the go-to source for data about the Great Lakes and the home of pioneering investigations into solutions to the challenges facing them.

“This is a unique, amazing place,” says Guy Meadows, director of the GLRC. Meadows came to Michigan Tech from the University of Michigan to lead the Great Lakes . . .

The Science of Yellow Snow: White-tailed Deer may be Ruining their own Winter Havens

Mon, 3 Jun 2013 14:59:29 -0400

New research from wildlife ecologists at Michigan Technological University indicates that white-tailed deer may be making the soil in their preferred winter homes unfit to grow the very trees that protect them there.

Bryan Murray, a PhD candidate at Michigan Tech, and two faculty members, Professor Christopher Webster and Assistant Professor Joseph Bump, studied the effects on soil of the nitrogen-rich waste that white-tailed deer leave among stands of eastern hemlock, which are among their favorite wintering grounds in the harsh, snowy climate of northern Michigan. Webster and Bump are on the faculty of Michigan Tech’s School of Forest Resources and . . .

Most Scientists Agree: Humans are Causing Global Climate Change

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:36 -0400

Do most scientists agree that human activity is causing global climate change? Yes, they do, according to an extensive analysis of the abstracts or summaries of scientific papers published over the past 20 years, even though public perception tends to be that climate scientists disagree over the fundamental cause of climate change.

To help put a stop to the squabbling, two dozen scientists and citizen-scientists from three continents--including Sarah Green, professor and chair of chemistry at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich.— analyzed the abstracts of nearly 12,000 peer-reviewed scientific papers on climate change published between 1991 and 2011. They also . . .

Bear Baiting May Put Hunting Dogs at Risk from Wolves

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:00:00 -0400

Bear hunters will tell you that a good way to attract a bear is to put out bait. And in 10 states, including Michigan and Wisconsin, that’s perfectly legal. Hunting dogs are another useful technique in the bear-hunter’s toolkit, and 17 states say that’s just fine.

But who else likes bear bait? Gray wolves, that’s who. And wolves that are feeling territorial about a bear bait stash can—and sometimes do—kill hunting dogs released at the bait site.

Like most interactions between wildlife and human beings, wolf attacks on hunting dogs illustrate a tangled trade-off: attracting bears for the hunters, attracting danger . . .

Isle Royale Wolves Fall Prey to Inbreeding Problems

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 08:53:39 -0400

Michigan Technological University’s annual Winter Study of the wolves and moose of Isle Royale National Park counted eight wolves on the island this winter, down one from last year. And as far as the researchers could tell, no wolf pups were born in 2012.

“This is the first year since 1971, the year reproduction first began being monitored, that we did not detect any sign that pups had been born during the past year,” wrote John Vucetich, the Michigan Tech population biologist who heads the annual study, in the 2012-203 Winter Study annual report released this week

“We failed to detect signs . . .

Researchers Invited to Learn Essentials of Entrepreneurship

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:09:58 -0400

In an effort to help researchers fast-track their technologies to the marketplace, Michigan is launching a new entrepreneurial training program called Michigan I-Corps. Applications for the program, administered by the University of Michigan, opened last week.

Michigan I-Corps is modeled after the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps (Innovation Corps) program. Two Michigan Tech teams have participated in the national I-Corps. Earlier this month a team led by Ezra Bar Ziv, a professor of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics, was selected as the top team among the 24 participating teams from universities throughout the nation. The first NSF I-Corps team from Michigan Tech was led by . . .

Following Phragmites Home: Scientists Use Satellite Data to Map Invasive Species in Great Lakes Wetlands

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 09:05:11 -0500

Phragmites australis, an invasive species of plant called common reed, grows rapidly into dense stands of tall plants that pose an extreme threat to Great Lakes coastal wetlands. Early treatment is the key to controlling Phragmites.

But how can these invasive reeds be eradicated before they take over their environment if we don’t know where they are?

Now we do know, thanks to scientists from Michigan Technological University’s Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI), the US Geological Survey (USGS), Boston College and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). They mapped the US coastline of all five Great Lakes using satellite technologies. Combined with . . .

Growing Better Poplars for Biofuels

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:43:26 -0400

It took mankind millennia of painstaking trial and error to breed hardier, healthier food crops.

“We can’t wait that long to develop better crops for biofuels,” says Victor Busov, a plant geneticist at Michigan Technological University’s School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science. “We need to move faster to meet the needs of tomorrow, and the only way we can do that is through knowledge.”

So Busov is using some 21^st century tools—the genome of the poplar tree and snippets of DNA known as activation tags—to identify the genes that make plants grow faster or change their chemical or physical properties.

He recently . . .

Michigan Tech Leads International Study of Social, Environmental Impacts of Biofuel Production

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 11:39:26 -0400

Is it possible to develop and produce biofuels in a sustainable way, without harming people or the environment? What policies need to be put in place to help that happen?

Nearly three dozen researchers from four countries—including 15 from Michigan Tech—will spend the next 5 years and $4.81 million of new National Science Foundation (NSF) funding trying to answer those questions. The grant is from NSF’s Partnerships in International Research and Education (PIRE) program.

Scientists from the US, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, led by Professor Kathleen Halvorsen (Social Sciences/SFRES), will join forces on the multinational study. They will analyze of the impacts of . . .

A Mystery Solved: 3 Wolves Drowned in Old Mine Shaft at Isle Royale National Park

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:29:42 -0400

During their 2012 Winter Study, Michigan Technological University population biologist John Vucetich and wildlife ecologist Rolf Peterson started wondering where the wolves of Isle Royale National Park had gone. They only found nine wolves, and as far as they could tell, only one was a female. They expressed serious concern that the wolves of Isle Royale might be well on their way to extinction.

Now they know what happened to at least three of those wolves, one of them a young female, who likely would have contributed to the population’s viability in the future.

In late May, National Park Service biologist Ted . . .