Some examples of ongoing lab projects
Conservation biology and habitat management in Bill Yeck Park, Ohio
Dr. McEwan is PI on a grant from the Centerville-Washington Township Park District to develop a habitat management plant for a fascinating property in southwestern Ohio. Bill Yeck Park is approximately 200 acres and contains a wide variety of habitats including meadow, marsh, wetland, riparian forest and upland forest. The goal of the project is to identify habitats of particular interest and provide information towards developing a long-term management plan that will address invasive species, aquatic habitats, and conservation within the context of multi-use management.
Project Images: LINK
Link to the Park District Website: LINK
The Urban Watershed Collaborative: Experiential and cross-cultural learning and the urban aquatic ecology of Dayton, Ohio
Dr. McEwan is PI on a grant from the City of Dayton (Ohio) to establish a measurement protocol for the effects of urban stormflow on the biology of freshwater rivers within the city. This is an exciting project that aligns our scientific activity directly with objectives of the city in which we are located. This project will establish a training platform for students and hopefully sets up a long-term partnership between the lab and the city.
Project Images: LINK
Invasion biology of Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii)
Dr. McEwan is PI on a grant from the National Science Foundation that focuses on how the invasions of Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) along riparian zones impacts the biodiversity and functioning of headwater streams. Executing this project has been a dominant activity in the lab ca. 2014-2018.
Biodiversity, carbon storage, and typhoon impacts in subtropical forests of Taiwan
The lab is engaged in a long-term collaborative project to explore the ecology of subtropical forests in Taiwan. Dr. McEwan was PI on a grant through the Smithsonian Institute Center for Tropical Forest Science which helped launch this collaboration. The overall goal is to understand how biodiversity and ecosystem function are related in the high diversity subtropical broadleaved forests of Taiwan. Two great things about research in Taiwan are (a) the infrastructure for research is outstanding, and (b) some of the forests are heavily typhoon impacted, which acts as an interesting “ecological filter” on which species can persist. This project is part of a long-term, ongoing, collaboration with Dr. Jyh-min Chiang at Tunghai University in Taiwan.
Long-term Dynamics of the Eastern Deciduous Forest of North America
Dr. McEwan has been involved in a constellation of research activities that revolve around the idea of understanding how temperate deciduous forests of eastern North America are changing over the long-term. These projects include (a) long-term monitoring project in old-growth forests of Lilley Cornett Woods in eastern Kentucky, (b) using dendrochronology to document processes such as gap dynamics and fire in various forests, and (c) a collaboration with Neil Pederson of Harvard Forest and Jim Dyer of Ohio University to assess broad scale dynamics in these forests, particularly focused on climatic effects.
