Tampico Ridge LTER Provides Research Opportunities for WOU Students

Written by Emily Creasy, WOU SPO communications intern

Western Oregon University (WOU) professor Dr. Ava Howard, in partnership with Dr. Gareth Hopkins and Dr. Jeffrey Snyder, coordinates a long-term ecological restoration site (LTER) located off the WOU campus between Monmouth and Corvallis. The Tampico Ridge LTER project focuses on understanding ecological processes that occur in individual natural areas and different habitats. During 2020, the Oak LTER team consisted of three WOU faculty, eight WOU undergraduate students, two alumni, and an exchange student. Another two students joined this spring, one is working on the 2019 oak leaf herbivory samples and the other is working on a related project with potted oaks here at Western. Other WOU faculty researchers include Dr. Bryan Dutton and Dr. Mary Harrell. In addition, Dr. David Woodruff, from the United States Forest Service has been involved in research with Dr. Howard on the growth and physiology of the oak trees.

The Tampico Ridge LTER has provided numerous opportunities for students at Western to gain hands-on, practical research experience in their field. For example, students help maintain important logs of Oregon white oaks in four habitat types: oak savannah, closed/closing canopy mixed oak-fir forest, thinned forest areas following logging of fir trees, and an intensively managed oak woodland following selective logging of all non-target trees. Dr. Howard explained that there are many monitoring projects underway, including, “growth and physiology of the oak trees, understory vegetation monitoring, acorn production and health, canopy leaf herbivory, and monitoring of invertebrates, reptiles, and avian abundance and diversity.”

The Tampico Ridge LTER has provided numerous opportunities for students at Western to gain hands-on, practical research experience in their field.

The Oak ecology team also worked on an acorn-herbivory study based on samples collected during the 2019 oak masting year. A mast year is when the trees produce more fruit than normal. The white oaks at Tampico Ridge appear to mast about every 5 years. Henry Roberts, a senior at WOU, presented the findings virtually at the 2021 National Conference on Undergraduate Research hosted by the Council on Undergraduate Research. WOU senior, Samantha Sackett, also presented at the conference, sharing her research on avian abundance and diversity in Tampico Ridge.

Another student at Western, Yasmin Schulberg, received a $1,000 scholarship from the Willamette Valley Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Oregon (NPSO).