SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AT AMC: “It’s in our DNA” – by Gabriella Gurney

Gabriella is the Science Communicator for the Appalachian Mountain Club.  Her work focuses on bridging the communication gap between research scientists and casual audiences regarding conservation, outdoors recreation, and climate change in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Did you know that the Appalachian Mountain Club has a research team? The AMC has 6 full-time scientists on staff, studying mountain ecology, the alpine zone, plants along the Appalachian Trail, snow science, and more. They regularly produce academic papers, attend conferences, and give presentations on their work, interfacing with the scientific community and casual audiences alike.

When the AMC was founded in 1876, Edward Pickering, one of the Club’s co-founders, established part of its mission as “to explore the mountains of New England and adjacent regions, both for scientific and artistic purposes.” In the 1930s, Joe Dodge, a prominent AMCer who went on to co-found the Mount Washington Observatory, was monitoring weather in the White Mountains, though no research department formally existed at the time. And education on the surrounding ecosystems was always a part of AMCs high mountain huts.

Senior staff scientist Georgia Murray uses iNaturalist to log community science observations

“It was forward thinking of the AMC to focus on science,” current Research Department Director Dr. Sarah Nelson says. “It was even in its founding impetus for both scientific and artistic purposes. In the 1970s, the Forest Service and AMC recognized the need for scientific approaches to human use in the White Mountains and understanding their ecological impacts, as well as use-management techniques.”

In 1973, the Research Department was officially created.

Since 1973, the AMC’s research department has studied a variety of ecological items. Acid rain. Air pollution impacts on hiker health. Rare alpine plants. Their work has contributed to policy, advocacy, and defense for foundational environmental protections like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.

The AMC’s Research Team is currently composed of 6 staff scientists, a postdoctoral Research Fellow, and a science writer. They are:

Dr. Sarah Nelson, Director of Research. Dr. Nelson’s current research includes geochemistry in lakes, climate change with a focus on changing winters, and mercury contamination, using approaches including long-term monitoring, biosentinels, and citizen/community science. Research sites include remote or protected lands, including long-term sites across Maine, mountain ponds in the Northeast, and national parks around the U.S.

Georgia Murray, Senior Scientist. A scientist with the AMC since 2000, Georgia currently oversees AMC’s ambient air pollution program in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service including mountain-based monitoring of cloud, rain, and stream water chemistry in Wilderness areas in the White Mountain National Forest. She also leads AMC’s plant phenology monitoring work using Nature’s Notebook, which incorporates community science, and conducts mountain climate research.

Dr. Jordon Tourville, Staff Scientist. Focused on terrestrial ecology, Dr. Tourville’s research focuses on the response of plant and forest communities, particularly in montane systems, to global change drivers. His current research includes investigating controls on tree species seedling establishment and distributions, climate-related changes in understory plant phenology, and community changes of alpine vegetation in the northeastern US. A comprehensive interview with Dr. Tourville can be found on the AMC Outdoors Blog at https://www.outdoors.org/resources/amc-outdoors/conservation-and-climate/a-conversation-with-dr-jordon-tourville-amc-terrestrial-ecologist/

Dr. Jordon Tourville and Braedon Lineman inventory plants in the alpine zone

Summer intern Maddy White removes invasive dandelions from the alpine zone

Cathy Poppenwimer, GIS Scientist. For over 20 years Cathy has been with the AMC doing land conservation utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) through analysis and public awareness. Projects include land conservation assessment at the parcel and landscape scale; GIS data development using satellite imagery, GPS data, and analysis; development and management of the Planning and Conservation section of the Pennsylvania Highlands website that provides tools to assist conservation planning and implementation; map development and design.

Carolyn Ziegra, Research Forester. Carolyn helps facilitate research projects with various regional partners on AMC’s Maine Woods Initiative project in Northern Maine. Her work helps achieve AMC’s land management objectives of creating more resilient forest structures that encourage the growth of late-successional species and stand characteristics.

Braedon Lineman, Research Assistant. Braedon is interested in research that utilizes field and remote sensing tools and studies the ecological and biogeochemical interactions of environmental systems.

Dr. Morgan Southgate, Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Southgate’s postdoctoral project seeks to assess the impacts of climate change on phenological escape in spring-active wildflowers across the AT Corridor, utilizing community science data from iNaturalist and the National Phenology Network in combination with field-based research. These data will be leveraged to clarify the climatic drivers of herbaceous plant phenology across spatial scales, providing a basis for the development of strategies for conservation of this diverse group of plants.

Gabriella Gurney, Science Communicator. Gabriella has been with the AMC since 2023. Her work focuses on bridging the communication gap between research scientists and casual audiences regarding conservation, outdoors recreation, and climate change in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Today’s Research team continues AMC’s legacy of scientific study, maintaining records of snow and weather in the White Mountains while tackling projects across AMC’s region from Maine to Virginia.

Research 1: Summer intern Madelyn Wood digs invasive dandelions out of the alpine zone in the White Mountains over summer ’24.

Research 2: Dr. Jordon Tourville and Braedon Lineman conduct plant sampling work in the alpine zone in the Whites.

Research 3: Senior staff scientist Georgia Murray uses iNaturalist to log community science observations.