Welcome!

Current Research Projects

• How can landownders best implement best practices for supporting soil heath and water quality on farmland in the Mid-Atlantic?
• Here's a link to our 2024 Annual Report of Activities at the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service research farm where I work.
• What lichens live around us?
• I'm writing about the Bryophytes and Lichens of Liberty State Park
• I lead lots of lichen walks with Mycological Association of DC and we sometimes collect DNA sequecnces of the fungi we find

In the 2010s, I studied lichens and soils

My research investigated how lichens influence the habitat conditions and physical processes in the soils.

• Here's a youtube video about my research on lichens in the NJ Pinelands
• Here's a presentation I made for the Mid-Atlantic Ecological Society of America meeting in 2015 on my research about lichen communities of the NJ Pinelands
• Here's a poster I made for the Soil Ecology Society meeting in 2013 on my research about soil arthropods living under lichen communities of the NJ Pinelands
• Here's a poster I made for the Rutgers Microbiology Symposium in 2015 on my research about soil microbial activity under lichen communities of the NJ Pinelands
• Here's a different poster I made for the Rutgers Microbiology Symposium in 2016 on my research about nutrient interception by soil lichens
• Here's my dissertation from 2016Soil Lichen Communities of the New Jersey Pinelands and their Effects on Belowground Patterns and Processes
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Invasive Plants

I wrote about how an invasive plant, Teesdalia nudicaulis, may change soil conditions for native plants of the NJ Pinelands, and how lichens may prevent the establishment of Teesdalia colonies in this paper.

Urban Ecology

I worked with the US Forest Service Philadelphia Research Station to understand how emerald ash borer will change the Philadelphia Urban forests. for the plants and animals that live there and for the people that live there.

Other Lichen Projects

• England, J.K., C.J. Hansen, J.L. Allen, S.Q. Beeching, W.R. Buck, V. Charny, J.G. Guccion, R.C. Harris, M. Hodges, N.M. Howe and J. C. Lendemer. 2019. Checklist of the lichens and allied fungi of Kathy Stiles Freeland Bibb County Glades Preserve, Alabama, USA. Opuscula Philolichenum, 18:420-434.
• Allen, J.L. and N.M. Howe, 2016. Landfill Lichens: A checklist for Freshkills Park, Staten Island, NY Opuscula Philolechenum 15:82-91.
• Howe, N.M., and Lendemer, J.C., 2010. The recovery of a simplified lichen community at the Palmerton Zinc Smelter after 34 years. In: A Lichenological Legacy – Festschrift Thomas H. Nash III. S.T. Bates, F. Bungartz, R. Lücking, M.A. Herrera-Campos & A. Zambrano (eds.). Bibliotheca Lichenologica 106: 120–136.
• Fryday, A.M., Lendemer, J.C. and Howe, N.M. 2007 Porpidia soredizodes (lichenized ascomycota) in North America. Opuscula Philolichenum, 4:1-4.

Other Plants Projects

I used to run a volunteer program managing invasive species at Point Reyes National Seashore:

• Steers,R., Wrubel. E., Williams, A., Howe. N., and Jordan, J. 2011. Invasive plant species early detection in the San Francisco Bay Area Network: 2010 annual report. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/SFAN/NRTR—2011/494 NPS, Fort Collins, CO.
• Williams, A., J. Rogers, N. Howe, R. Steers, and C. Wrubel. 2011. Invasive plant species early detection in the San Francisco Bay Area Network: 2009 annual report. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/SFAN/NRTR—2011/493 NPS, Fort Collins, CO.