This fall, Lowell High students set up a forest plot in West Meadow as part of the Harvard Forest Changing Forest Study. This study is looking at the long term effects of the changing climate and human influences on our forests. Students will be participating in authentic, field-based research, going back to this same plot in each season to collect data on the trees found there.

Forests are important for many reasons but the one that we focused on is the role of forests as carbon sinks. Trees take in carbon from our atmosphere and store that carbon within the tree itself. But what happens when that tree is no longer living, where does the carbon go and how fast is it released into the atmosphere? These are just some of the questions that students will be analyzing over the next years.