Richard B. Primack

Our lab focuses on how climate change affects the flowering, leafing out, fruiting, and leaf senescence times of plants, the migration times of birds and the flight times of insects in Massachusetts, and the potential for ecological mismatches among species caused by changes in timing. The main geographical focus is Concord, Massachusetts, due to the availability of extensive phenological and species abundance records kept by Henry David Thoreau and later naturalists. We also explore how museum specimens of plants can be used to examine the effects of climate change over wider geographical areas. We collaborate with an international network of botanical gardens to investigate the diverse responses of plant species to climatic variation. An ongoing activity involves producing conservation biology textbooks for different regions of the world.