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Soil ecology
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June 3, 2026
New Study Tracks Long-Term Results of Forest Fungi Restoration Experiment
Few places are as intensively landscaped as golf courses. They’re mowed and manicured, they’re fertilized and kept chemically weed-free, and they’re tromped on half the year by golfers, carts, and...
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December 5, 2024
The Incredible Life Beneath Our Feet
World Soil Day is held annually on December 5th as a way to foster awareness for soil conservation. This year’s theme for World Soil Day is “Caring for Soils: Measure,...
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January 23, 2024
Can inoculated soils promote healthy urban trees? Preliminary results
Preliminary results from a Holden research project testing soil inoculations for improvement of urban tree plantings.
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December 5, 2023
World Soil Day: Holden’s Soil Ecologists Improving the Odds for Trees in Urban Environments
Efforts are underway to plant trees in Cuyahoga County’s urban areas by the thousands. In these cities, canopy cover is well below the county average, which brings well-documented ill effects...
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December 1, 2023
Soils Under Snow Still Carry On
Winter is a time when we think of dormancy. Chipmunks have begun hibernating. The deciduous trees have lost their leaves. Herbaceous plants are resting belowground as bulbs, rhizomes, etc. But,...
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October 13, 2023
Enlisting Fungi to Help Bring Trees Back to Our Cities
Mushroom Month might be over, but we aren’t done celebrating mushrooms just yet because October 15th is National Mushroom Day! If you’ve been keeping up with our blog posts for...
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August 21, 2023
Holden Researchers Explore an Underappreciated Way Warmer Temperatures Will Impact Ecosystems: Decomposition
In a new study, researchers at the Holden Arboretum improve our understanding of a mechanism for how climate change will impact natural ecosystems.
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July 26, 2023
Holden Researcher Will Study How Microbes Alter How Plants Respond to Climate Change with Prestigious Award from the NSF
There’s an entire universe of microscopic life, living in us, on us, and all around us, too small for the naked eye to see. The more researchers learn about these...
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April 28, 2023
Snowballing Effects of Beech Leaf Disease Hurt Helpful Root Fungi
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Severe beech leaf disease infestation hurts trees’ relationships with helpful root mutualists, ectomycorrhizal fungi. The American beech, Fagus grandifolia, is a North American staple and the dominant...
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April 28, 2023
Acid Rain’s Effects Still Visible Belowground in Eastern Forests
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New research from the Holden Arboretum finds de-acidifying forest soils helps bring back important plant-fungi relationships. Caption: Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) is an important member of the forest...
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April 7, 2023
A Day in Bole Woods with Holden Researchers
The Soil Ecology Lab here at the Holden Arboretum is all about collaboration! This week members of our lab spent a day in Bole Woods to do site maintenance for...
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January 18, 2023
Acid Rain and Forest Carbon Storage
The Stuble lab has a new paper out in the journal Applied Soil Ecology exploring the effects of acid rain on forest carbon storage. In this paper, we look at...
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December 2, 2022
Why We’re Celebrating Soil for World Soil Day — And You Should Too!
We’re surrounded by soils. They’re not just outside, but underneath us, supporting our structures and our homes as well as our ecosystems and food systems. But perhaps the most amazing...
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September 8, 2022
Connecting Above- and Below-Ground Worlds
by Sarah Kyker We are continuing to celebrate National Mushroom Month at HF&G all September long! Today, we want to appreciate fungi even when they are not fruiting. While mushrooms...
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July 20, 2022
A New Way to Mulch: Wood Chips
Earlier this year, when still in the throes of winter, we found ourselves with many Lilac, Forsythia, and Viburnum branches lining the Display Gardens from recent prunings, and we wanted...
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March 22, 2022
Save Your Back and Save the Bugs! A No-mulch Approach at the Holden Arboretum
Though we’ve made it past the vernal equinox, the official start of Spring in the northern hemisphere, I’ve been around northeast Ohio long enough to know that Winter probably hasn’t...
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January 20, 2022
What’s the (Compost) Tea?: Hot-and-Bothered by the Cold Brew
By: Rob Maganja, Horticulturist Compost tea is one of the mythological potions of horticulture. I can just imagine bottles of it on the refrigerated shelf in Whole Foods, somewhere between...
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December 2, 2021
Healthy Soils have a Healthy Dose of Decomposition: Celebrating World Soil Day
By: Sarah Kyker, Emma Dawson-Glass, Katie Stuble, and David Burke December 5th marks World Soil Day. World Soil Day began in 2014, initiated by the United Nations, to focus attention...
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July 8, 2021
Biological Time Capsules
For many people working in a botanical profession, spring is a mad scramble as we try to accomplish as much as we can while so many plants are in bloom. At the HF&G’s David G. Leach Research Station, we...
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June 18, 2021
The Growth of Forest Trees is Deeply Rooted in Soil
It should come as no surprise that trees are very reliant on the soil they grow in. A tree’s growth and health are deeply rooted in the soil (pun intended),...
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December 4, 2020
The Biodiversity Belowground: Celebrating World Soil Day
Each year on December 5th, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations celebrates World Soil Day. World Soil Day began in 2014 to focus attention on the importance of...
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