On April 5th, 2025, at the one of the most iconic botanical landscapes in the region, members of the Aronson Lab showcased their research at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) Mid-Atlantic Chapter Meeting, held at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.
We’re proud of our team for continuing to lead and contribute to the regional ecological research community. Congratulations to everyone who presented and participated!
Samantha E. Fuentes-Gigliotti (PhD Candidate) Restoration & Land Management
<The effects of pre-planting treatment strategies on understory vegetation in an urban forest patch> Samantha E. Fuentes-Gigliotti, Rutgers University Max R. Piana, University of Massachusetts Amherst Richard A. Hallett, New York City Urban Field Station Myla F.J. Aronson, Rutgers University
Urban forest patches forests experience a wide variety of anthropogenic and environmental stressors, including recurrent canopy gap-creating events, herbivory pressure, and invasive species. Forest restoration strategies to overcome these stressors frequently rely on enhancing tree regeneration, including tree-planting. Pre-planting treatment strategies are a crucial preparatory step in establishing appropriate site conditions to ensure successful long-term tree regeneration. However, many pre-planting treatments re
ly on synthetic herbicide, which can have negative effects on biodiversity and human health. Because of the negative effects and perceptions of synthetic herbicides, many cities, towns, and parks have begun to ban the use of these chemicals. Our objective was to determi
ne which pre-planting strategy (mechanical removal, synthetic herbicide application, organic herbicide application) was most effective at controlling invasive plants and enhancing native plant cover to inform park managers responding to new or potential herbicide ordinances. We conducted our study within a 16-hectare Liriodendron-Quercus urban forest patch over a two-year period. Organic herbicide demonstrated the lowest efficacy at reducing non-native plants (-14.2% reduction), followed by mechanical removal (18.6%). Synthetic herbicide application had the highest efficacy (-46.1%). Although organic herbicide had the lowest efficacy, it did reduce invasive cover. Species-specific responses showed similar trends among pre-planting treatments. Additionally, we found that the timing of herbicide application can support higher efficacy in organic herbicide use. Our study supports species-specific management focused on above- and below-ground control mechanisms. Future monitoring of the treatment sites will be vital to assess the impacts these treatments will have on diversity, composition, and restoration success. restoration, forests, management
Hogyeum Evan Joo (PhD Candidate) Urban Ecology
<Links Between Campus Protected Landscape Awareness and Support for Conservation in a Student Sample> Hogyeum Evan Joo, Rutgers University Jeffrey A.G. Clark, Nature Areas Conservancy Myla F.J. Aronson, Rutgers University
Natural areas are key providers of ecosystem services in urban environments. On college campuses, these landscapes play a crucial role in serving as preserved open spaces and living laboratories for place-based education. Despite their ecological and educational benefits, campus natural areas are often the subject of competing interests among stakeholders—including students, faculty, administration, and local community groupsâ€, leading to tensions over their use and management. Furthermore, depending on stakeholders’ levels of knowledge and awareness, these spaces may be at risk of development or underutilization. Considering the importance of local support in the long-term protection of natural areas, a thorough understanding of the community’s involvement, awareness, and levels of support is central to the conservation of these spaces. On college campuses, students’ awareness and engagement may have a strong influence on institutional policies and decisions regarding these landscapes as a key community stakeholder of universities.
In this study, we examined the perspectives of students through a questionnaire survey, investigating the relationship between their awareness of protected natural landscapes on campus and their support for environmental conservation. The online survey targeted undergraduate students in the US in 2024 and 2025, yielding 822 responses from 25 institutions. While 77.13% of respondents reported being aware of their campus’s natural areas, only 60.08% understood their purpose, and 72.38% visited these areas fewer than three times a year. Despite this, 94.88% supported their protection when informed of their ecological value. Notably, 25.49% of students who had visited protected areas did so for classrelated activities. Our findings underscore the role of higher education institutions (HEIs) in educating students on conserved natural areas and fostering their interactions with nature. While a significant majority of students supported on-campus natural area preservation, their direct engagement remained low. Increasing hands-on exposure and structured engagement within these areas can bridge this gap. The administrations of HEIs can promote the use of these areas in coursework and other academic activities in collaboration with faculty members. Furthermore, universities can enhance engagement through outdoor learning experiences and campus-wide initiatives that encourage interaction with nature. By strengthening student involvement, HEIs can cultivate a campus culture that prioritizes environmental stewardship and conservation, ensuring that these natural areas are both preserved and actively contribute to students’ academic experiences, well-being, and environmental awareness. Environmental Awareness, Campus Natural Areas, Institution-led Conservation
Megan R. King (Master’s Program) Plant Traits
< Investigating Plant Morphological Trait Change in Four Cities in the Eastern United States > Megan R. King, Rutgers University Ryan J. Schmidt, Harvard University Myla F.J. Aronson, Rutgers University Lena Struwe, Rutgers University
As urbanization continues to rapidly increase, floras are changing around the world, with many non-native species filling niches no longer favorable to the native flora. However, how urbanization drives plant phenotypic variation and adaptation is less known. Understanding morphological trait change in response to urban environmental conditions allows us to study plant adaptation, and how those adaptations will shape the future biodiversity of cities due to lack of genetic variation. Recent studies have shown that some non-native species become taller, increase in specific leaf area (SLA), and heavier seeds in highly urbanized landscapes. Here, we investigated morphological change (plant height, leaf size, seed mass, peduncle/pedicel length, SLA) across urban and latitudinal gradients in four cities. We hypothesized that: 1) morphological traits will shift in response to higher impervious surface cover across all cities, and 2) trait change will be more variable in cities at higher latitudes, due to higher relative increase in average temperature. In this study, we collected three common urban plant species (Lepidium virginicum, Plantago lanceolata, Trifolium repens) in four cities (New Haven CT, Baltimore MD, Raleigh NC, Jacksonville FL) along a latitudinal gradient in North America from Florida to Connecticut, USA. In each city, specimens were collected within areas of high (80-100%), medium (50-79%), and low (20-49%) impervious surface cover for a total of 377 specimens. Trait change is also highly variable and non-consistent across impervious surface cover, however we have determined that seeds are heavier and plants are typically are shorter in areas of high urbanization, and that leaf thickness does not correlate with latitude. The age, size and overall amount of impervious surface within each city may also play an important role in stress induced trait change. Our data suggests that plant trait variation is higher in the most urbanized parts of cities, indicating that trait change may be occurring in some urban populations and not others, and that traits may not be influenced by urbanization in landscapes of less t
han 80% impervious surface. While controlled environments for plant trait shifts have been favored by researchers, understanding how morphological traits respond in natural populations allows us to understand how the multiple facets of environmental change caused by urbanization influences selective pressure for certain traits. This research provides the stepping stones to understanding trait selection and adaptation by species in urban environments. Plant trait change, Urbanization, Impervious surface
Alyssa Latargia (Undergraduate Program) Plant Traits
< Morphological and phenological trait change in herbaceous wetland plants in relation to temperature and precipitation patterns over the last century > Alyssa Latargia, Rutgers University Myla F.J. Aronson, Rutgers University
Plant morphological and phenological traits represent adaptations to their environment, particularly temperature and soil moisture. Because wetland plants are sensitive to fluctuations in climate, they can serve as an early indicator of climate change impacts. In this study, we examined how leaf area and flowering phenology has changed in the past century, driven by temperature and precipitation, in th
ree herbaceous wetland plants: Asclepias incarnata, Mimulus ringens, and Lobelia cardinalis. We hypothesized that leaf area would decrease and flowering would occur earlier in the growing seaso
n with increasing temperatures. We also hypothesized that leaf area would decrease if spring and summer precipitation decreased, but changes in flowering time would not respond to precipitation changes. Using digitized herbarium specimens accessed via the Mid-Atlantic Herbaria Consortium, we examined specimens collected between 1930-2024. In order to account for local variation, we measured pairs of specimens collected within 3 kilometers of each other at least 20 years apart. We measured leaf area using ImageJ and accounted for flower presence for 30 specimens per species. For each specimen, we also collected average annual temperature and precipitation from the NWS National Forecast Offices historical data. When all species were analyze
d together, we found a weak positive trend for leaf area in relation to increasing average annual temperature and precipitation. We found that flowering time occurred later in the season over time despite mean annual temperature increasing. We also found greater variability in flowering time for specimens collected more recently for two species, L. cardinalis and A. incarnata. These data indicate that flowering season increased in length due to climatic changes, likely driven by increased temperatures. For leaf area, more specimens may be needed to observe a significant trend. The increase in leaf area in relation to average temperature may be due to other external factors, such as an increase in precipitation. Because wetland plants are highly sensitive to climatic changes, this research provides insight into how wetland communities may adapt to climate change, helping to inform future conservation and management strategies. Plant traits, Herbarium, Climate change
Elena Tartaglia (Aronson Lab Research Associate)
<Plant Native: Comparing biodiversity benefits, ecosystem services provisioning, and physiological performance of native and non-native plants in urban horticulture> Elena Tartaglia, Rutgers University Myla F.J. Aronson, Rutgers University
Non-native plants are frequently used in urban horticulture despite evidence that urban areas are regular points of introduction, often leading to invasions in urban and surrounding areas, negatively impacting biodiversity. Many horticulturalists assert that non-native plants are more successful at survival in stressful urban conditions and that they provide equal or greater habitat and ecosystem services t
han native plants. However, little research has directly compared biodiversity support, ecosystem services and physiological performance of native and non-native plants in urban systems. We present here a systematic literature review using the PRISMA methodology, to assess the following three questions: (1) Is there a difference between native and non-native plants in their ability to support faunal biodiversity in urban green spaces? (2) Is there a difference between native and non-native plants in their provisioning of urban ecosystem services? and (3) Do non-native species outperform natives in urban environments in terms of survival, growth, fitness or other physiological parameters? We extracted data from 165 total papers, divided into categories of biodiversity support, ecosystem service provisioning and physiological performance. Across all categories, 120 studies found that native plants outperform non-native plants on the response metric evaluated in the study, 57 demonstrated mixed impacts, 56 demonstrated no differences among plant origin, and 26 found non-native plants outperformed native plants. We found overwhelming evidence that native plants support higher faunal abundance and diversity than non-native plants in urban landscapes. Relatively few studies examined ecosystem services and plant physiological performance but we found that native plants support higher levels and diversity of ecosystem services and that many native plants can be used for horticulture – that is, native plants are able to survive and thrive in urban conditions. Native plants provide multiple ecosystem functions in urban greenspaces, supporting urban biodiversity and provisioning ecosystem services and their use should be prioritized in urban horticulture.