Tag: ecology
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Unwrapping the Box: Seeds, Spores, and the Forest Inside the Turtle
by Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., May 26, 2026 In the last post, we began a new part of this Eastern Box Turtle series by considering the turtle’s gifts. In Western science, many of these gifts are described as ecosystem services, or the useful work a species does in a larger ecological system. That language can…
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Holding History: Irises of the Mongolian Steppe
by Nicolette L. Cagle, June 13, 2026 In Khentii Province, Mongolia, history is close to the ground. This is a landscape closely associated with Chinggis Khan, with the Onon and Kherlen river worlds of his birth, with sacred mountains, and with the stories that connect empire, pastoral life, and Mongolian identity. To walk in Khentii…
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Wrapped in a Box: The Gifts of the Eastern Box Turtle
by Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., May 25, 2026 In the previous posts in this Eastern Box Turtle series, we followed the turtle from deep evolutionary time into the present: through its ancient shell, its contested names, its once broad but now shrinking range, its remembered routes, its habitat mosaics, and the broken landscapes that threaten…
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What Happens to a Nut on the Forest Floor?
by Nicolette L. Cagle, June 1, 2026 What happens to a hickory nut or walnut after it falls to the forest floor? At first, it can seem like a simple thing, a stored future released from the canopy and left beneath the tree that made it. Imagine a hickory nut resting inside its husk, a…
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Before the Box: The 260-Million-Year Story of the Eastern Box Turtle
by Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., May 15, 2026 The Eastern Box Turtle is one of the most familiar and beloved turtles of eastern North America, yet its story begins far beyond the forests, fields, and backyards where we encounter it today. To understand this small, domed, gold-mottled turtle, we have to travel through deep time to…
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Silver Birch: A Tree of Disturbance and Renewal
by Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., April 13, 2026 In the last several posts, I’ve explored the dry woodlands and steppe-edge habitats of Central Europe, where trees grow in bright light and on poor soils impacted by disturbance. After turning to Scots Pine, I arrive at another characteristic species of these transitional places: Silver Birch (Betula…
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Scots Pine: The Workhorse of Dry European Soils
by Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., April 13, 2026 In the last post, I explored the dry woodlands and steppe-edge habitats of Central Europe, where thin soils, lots of light, and anthropogenic disturbance create a different world from the cool mountain forests, broadleaf lowlands, and floodplains that came before. Here, I turn to one of the…
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Rock, Loess, and Light: Dry Woodlands and Steppe-Edge Habitats of Central Europe
by Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., April 13, 2026 In the last several posts, I’ve been moving through the major forested worlds of Central Europe, from mountain forests of Spruce, Fir, Beech, and Larch, to the Broadleaf Forests of the lowlands and foothills, and most recently to the shifting floodplain forests of the Danube, Morava, and…
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Pannonian Ash: A Tree of Hardwood Gallery Forests and Lowland Rivers
by Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., April 13, 2026 In the last several posts, I’ve been exploring the floodplain forests of Central Europe through some of their characteristic trees, including Black Alder and Black Poplar, both species closely tied to shifting sediments and mercurial river banks. Pannonian Ash belongs to the floodplain as well, but it…
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Black Poplar: The Fast-Growing Pioneer of Central Europe’s Floodplains
by Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., April 13, 2026 In recent posts, I have been exploring the dynamic floodplain forests found along the iconic Danube, Morava, and Tisza Rivers, including the resilient, rooted, and red-hued Black Alder. But Black Alder is not alone in its ability to live with instability. It is joined by Black Poplar,…
Sense of Place 