Current Projects



Sugar maple regeneration

I'm interested in factors that influence tree regeneration, and in particular factors that affect sugar maple regeneration

  • Land-use history
  • Forest diseases
  • Ice and wind storms
  • Soil pH and calcium
    Jen with sugar maple seedlings

Jennifer Plaut counting seedlings in the Bowl Research Natural Area, White Mountains, NH




Collaborators on the project

Collaborators on the project (L-R): Ruth Yanai (SUNY-ESF), Elizabeth Hane (RIT), Mary Arthur (U. Kentucky), Steve Hamburg (Brown U.), Joel Blum (U. Michigan)

    Northern Hardwood Calcium Cycling Project

This is a collaborative project with researchers at five other institutions. The collaborators seek to clarify relationships between stand age and the cycling of calcium between biotic and abiotic pools in the northern hardwood forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

For more information: Northern Hardwood Forest Calcium Cycling Project




Plant Communities at Bergen Swamp

A collaborative project with Paul Shipman and graduate student Aaron Hall. As part of his graduate work, Aaron has been investigating the edaphic factors that influence the plant communities of the Bergen Swamp.

    Kenny Smith

Kenny Smith using a GPS unit to find the next plot at Bergen Swamp




Matt Boarman

Matt Boarman measures a transect

    Herbaceous Plant Diversity on the RIT campus

RIT is situated on a forested seasonal wetland. Students in my Plant Ecology course have started a project to examine the role that anthropogenic disturbance plays in the distribution and abundance of herbaceous plants on the RIT campus.