Alejandro Asencio conducting fieldwork.

Congratulations to Alejandro Asencio, undergraduate student majoring in Environmental Studies, who was accepted to the Harved Forest Summer Research Program in Massachusetts. The Harvard Forest Summer Research Program is an immersive ecology-based research experience that trains undergraduate students in ecological research. Students choose the projects they would like to work on and are connected to their project mentors who they will have access to throughout the summer and work collaboratively with to address the research question.

Alejandro will be doing research on forest fragmentation and climate effects on the temperate forest biome. This includes looking at nutrient cycles, above and belowground biomass, as well as the diversity of soil invertebrates. He'll be focusing on the response of tree growth to alterations in light availability, heat, and water stress that comes with the changing climate and forest fragmentation. This work is essential in filling knowledge gaps that exist on the environmental controls of tree growth and can be used in future research dealing with carbon sequestration in human-altered landscapes.

Published: March 7, 2024