University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Biology freshman Matt Miyano won a ribbon for best poster presentation at the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Spring Research Symposium. He presented his work in a poster titled “Assessing Forest Resilience with a Forest Accelerated Succession ExperimenT (FASET)” in April 2012. Miyano worked at the University of Michigan Biological Station and in the lab of Professor Knute Nadelhoffer lab this year as part of UROP.

His research seeks to quantify the resistance and resilience of available nitrogen and vegetation within a forest ecosystem from a girdling disturbance. Girdling is the complete removal of a strip of bark from around the entire circumference of tree trunk. By girdling early successional trees from 39 hectares of the UMBS’s Forest, FASET emulates disturbances, such as partial deforestation or an influx of tree pathogens. The goal of FASET is to assess how carbon and nitrogen cycling reacts across the forest ecosystem when secondary successional tree species replace primary, dominant trees. This research provided evidence for the resistance and resilience to disturbance of forest nitrogen cycling, which is important considering the anthropomorphic stressors that are being imposed on forests.

Three other undergraduate students who have been doing research in the Nadelhoffer Lab as part of the UROP were Ryan Chong, Nicole Dear and Sara Shamaskin. They have each been working on different aspects of FASET. 

Many other biology undergraduate students and EEB faculty take part in UROP each year.

View the poster by Miyano, Dear, Chong, Nadelhoffer, Luke Nave, Jim Le Moine, and Shamaskin here.