all Charles C. Davis stories

Global warming changing Walden Pond

404132862 — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:58:24 -0400

Records dating back to Thoreau show some sharp shifts in plant flowering near Walden Pond

404132862 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:25:55 -0400

Drawing on records dating back to the journals of Henry David Thoreau, scientists at Harvard University have found that different plant families near Walden Pond in Concord, Mass., have borne the effects of climate change in strikingly different ways. Some of the plant families hit hardest by global warming have included beloved species like lilies, orchids, violets, roses, and dogwoods.

Forests, reefs, mountaintop illuminate tropical biology

404132862 — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:30:43 -0400

Morning came in the middle of the night in the hikers’ hut partway up the side of Borneo’s towering Mount Kinabalu.

At 2 a.m., after just a few hours’ sleep, the Harvard Summer School students slowly roused themselves, creating a chorus of rustling sleeping bags, zippers, and boots on the wooden floor.

They’d been on the go for weeks, traveling across the island to sample its natural wonders, and they’d be on the go for a few weeks more. But where they’d been and where they’d be didn’t matter that morning. It was time to hike. The sun was coming and the peak was still hours away.