• PBIO 220 (Woody Plants)
• PBIO 415/515 (Quantitative Methods in Plant Biology)
• PBIO 436/536 (Plant Community Ecology)
• BIOS 870 (Biostatistics-II, Multivariate Methods)
  
  PBIO Global Studies
  Fennoscandia: Ecology of the Sub-Arctic

• Dysart Woods Laboratory, Director
• Promotion & Tenure Committee, Chair
• Evaluation Committee
• IT Committee
• Webmaster

Professional Service

• Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society
• Webmaster, Torrey Botanical Society
• Vice-Chair, Vegetation Section, ESA

My lab employs a combination of experimental and observational studies to understand the population dynamics and community ecology of eastern hardwood forests.

There are several focal areas within the lab:

1) Ecological and life-history attributes associated with hardwood regeneration. Important factors include seed production, dispersal, predation, germination, seedling recruitment, survival, and growth.

2) Disturbance ecology and community impacts. Dendrochchronological methods are frequently used to evaluate forest disturbance history. Experimental studies are employed to evaluate how fire, gaps, and soils affect the forest community.

3) Forest herb community structure and diversity. Emphasis on understanding the factors impacting forest understory diversity at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Also studies of human harvesting and cultivation of medicinally important herbs.

4) Ecology, habitat susceptibility, and control methods for non-native invasive species. Recent species of interest include: garlic mustard, Japanese stiltgrass, Amur honeysuckle, royal paulownia, and tree of heaven.

5) Forest restoration and mine-land reclamation. Different technologies are being explored to reclaim abandoned strip mines and restore them to hardwood forest. Special emphasis on the ecology and restoration of the American chestnut.

• Schelling, L.R. and B.C. McCarthy. 2007. Effects of prescribed fire and thinning on the spatial heterogeneity of the seed bank in a mixed oak forest. Natural Areas Journal 27: 320-331.

• Pierson, S.A.M., C.H. Keiffer, B.C. McCarthy, and S.H. Rogstad. 2007. Limited reintroduction does not always lead to rapid loss of genetic diversity: An example from the Americann chestnut (Castanea dentata; Fagaceae). Restoration Ecology 15(3): 420-429.

• McEwan, R.W., T.F. Hutchinson, R.D. Ford, and B.C. McCarthy. 2007. An experimental evaluation of fire history reconstruction using dendrochronology in white oak (Quercus alba). Canadian Journal of Forest Research 37: 806-816.

• Albrecht, M.A. and B.C. McCarthy. 2007. Effects of storage on seed dormancy and survivorship in black cohosh (Actaea racemosa L.) and goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis L.). Seed Science & Technology 35: 414-422.

• McEwan, R.W., R. Long, T.F. Hutchinson, R.P. Long, R.D. Ford, and B.C. McCarthy. 2007. Temporal and spatial patterns of fire occurrence during the establishment of mixed-oak forests in eastern North America. Journal of Vegetation Science 18: 655-664.

• Rinkes, Z.L. and B.C. McCarthy. 2007. Ground layer heterogeneity and hardwood regeneration in mixed oak forest. Appl. Veg. Sci. 10: 279-284.

• Hartman, K. and B.C. McCarthy. 2007. A dendro-ecological study of forest overstorey productivity following the invasion of a non-indigenous shrub, Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii). Applied Vegetation Science 10: 3-14.

• Graham, J.B. and B.C. McCarthy.  2006.  Forest floor fuel dynamics in mixed-oak forests of south-eastern Ohio. International Journal of Wildland Fire. 15: 479-488.

• Albrecht, M.A. and B.C. McCarthy. 2006. Comparative analysis of goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis L.) population re-growth following human harvest: implications for conservation. Am. Midl., Nat. 156: 229-236.

• Graham, J.B. and B.C. McCarthy.  2006. Effects of fine fuel moisture and loading on small scale fire behavior in mixed-oak forests of southeastern Ohio. Fire Ecology 2(1): 100-114. (URL)

• Albrecht, M.A. and B.C. McCarthy.  2006. Effects of prescribed fire and thinning on tree recruitment patterns in central hardwood forests. Forest Ecology and Management 226: 88-103.

• Albrecht, M.A. and B.C. McCarthy.  2006. Seed germination and dormancy in the medicinal woodland herbs Collinsonia canadensis L. (Lamiaceae) and Dioscorea villosa L. (Dioscoraceae). Flora 201: 24-31.

• Lewis, K.C. and B.C. McCarthy. 2006. Tree-of-heaven control using herbicide injection (Ohio). Ecological Restoration 24(1): 54-56.

• McEwan, R.W., C.H. Keiffer, and B.C. McCarthy. 2006. Dendroecology of American chestnut in a disjunct stand of oak-chestnut forest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 36: 1-11.

• Steele, M.A., B.C. McCarthy, and C.H. Keiffer. 2005. Seed dispersal, seed predation, and the American chestnut. Journal of the American Chestnut Foundation 19(2): 47-54.

• Small, C.J. and B.C. McCarthy. 2005. Relationship of understory diversity to soil nitrogen, topographic variation, and stand age in an eastern oak forest, USA. Forest Ecology and Management 217: 229-243.

• McEwan, R.W., R.N. Muller, and B.C. McCarthy. 2005. Vegetation-environment relationships among woody species in four canopy-layers in an old-growth Mixed Mesophytic Forest. Castanea 70: 32-46.

• Small, C.J. and B.C. McCarthy. 2005. Relationship of understory diversity to soil nitrogen, topographic variation, and stand age in an eastern oak forest, USA. For. Ecol. Manage. 217: 229-243.

• Pai, A. and B.C. McCarthy. 2005. Variation in shoot density and rhizome biomass of Acorus calamus L. with respect to the environment. Castanea 70: 263-275.

• McCament, C.L. and B.C. McCarthy. 2005. Two-year response of American chestnut (Castanea dentata) seedlings to shelterwood harvesting and fire in a mixed-oak forest ecosystem. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 35: 740-749.

• The ecology of medicinal herbs indigenous to the central Appalachians
• Spatial heterogeneity and scale factors impacting forest understory communities.
• Forest restoration following invasion by Microstegium vimineum.
• Vegetation composition, alien plant invasion, and edge effects in fragmented forests.
• Effects of fire and thinning on oak mast production and seed predation.
• Strip mine reforestation using American chestnut.
• Studies in the control and management of Ailanthus altissima.
• A dendrochronological history of fire in a southeastern Ohio oak forest.
• Restoration of hardwood forest understories infected with Lonicera maackii.
• Long-term vegetation dynamics at Dysart Woods, an old-growth forest of southeastern Ohio.
• Restoration ecology of mixed oak forests: reintroduction experiments with Castanea dentata
• Composition, structure, and diversity of a remnant stand of Castanea dentata in southwestern Wisconsin