Around the world, what determines the height plants grow to? Some places have trees a hundred meters high, while others are limited to annual plants shorter than a few centimeters. This range of variation is striking, but also important – canopy height helps us predict competition between species, ecosystem carbon and water fluxes, biomass accumulation,…

A forest can quickly reclaim its own after a disturbance. A decade ago, much of Mt. Lemmon was burned in a fire that destroyed nearly all the understorey and much of the canopy. Today, the scar of the fire remains, but evidence of regrowth is easy to find. Here you can see the broken remains…

This weekend brought a full moon to the desert. I was reminded of a fragment of Sappho (Bergk fr. 3): Ἄστερες μὲν ἀμφὶ κάλαν σελάνναν ἂψ ἀπυκρύπτοισι φάεννον εἶδος, ὄπποτα πλήθοισα μάλιστα λάμπῃ γᾶν [ἐπὶ πᾶσαν] … ἀργυρία … which has been translated by H.T. Wharton as The stars about the fair moon in their…

What can survive the passage of time? I spent this past week in the Chiricahua Mountains on an ecology-themed camping trip with nearly 80 middle school students. As part of the trip, we visited the remains of Fort Rucker, which more than 100 years ago was an Army post. Today several buildings remain standing in…