Heberling Lab
at Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Temperate deciduous forests. Global change.
Functional trait ecology. Invasion biology. Phenology. Biogeography.
Any and all things herbaria.
Functional trait ecology. Invasion biology. Phenology. Biogeography.
Any and all things herbaria.
We are a group of botanists and ecologists with diverse research interests (see people page). Our work is loosely centered around functional ecology of plants in the context of global change, especially in temperate deciduous forest systems. Driven by curiosity, our projects explore wide-ranging topics.
We are located at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, a free-standing natural history museum in Pittsburgh, and physically housed among the 540,000+ specimens, library, and related archives in the Carnegie Museum Herbarium. An inspiring place to be. We have strong interests in museum collections in our research and outreach. We advocate for the importance of collections and facilitate their use by others. For more, see CMNH Section of Botany's Strategic Plan 2020-22.
Search the CM collection online (thanks to NSF-funded digitization projects) and see the Section of Botany Website for information, including arranging visits and requesting loans.
Why are herbaria so important?! There are MANY reasons, but check out this short paper written for kids that nicely summarizes.
Search the CM collection online (thanks to NSF-funded digitization projects) and see the Section of Botany Website for information, including arranging visits and requesting loans.
Why are herbaria so important?! There are MANY reasons, but check out this short paper written for kids that nicely summarizes.
Some Lab News:
*Uprooted: Plants out of Place, an exhibition on invasive plants, opens at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Some great press coverage around the exhibition, including in the New York Times. Check out Mason talking about some of the sci comm work behind the exhibition here on Scientific American's Science Quickly podcast here (March 2025)
*New paper out in Plants, People, Planet led by postdoc Rachel Reeb on our work with invasive plant science communication. The cross-museum collaborative project culminates in new exhibition to open this spring! (Spring 2025)
*Check out a new essay with historian Dr. Molly Hardy on the role of herbaria in an age of extinction in Arnoldia: The Nature of Trees. Special Issue on “Extinction” edited by Matthew Battles, Yota Batsaki, and Peter Crane. (Summer 2024)
*Congrats to former NSF REPS student Abby Yancy on her first authored publication using iNaturalist data to quantify "ephemerality" in forest wildflowers. (May 2024)
*Our research with century old roots on herbarium specimens was highlighted in Smithsonian Magazine (March 2024)
*Our recent science communication project on invasive plants featured on The Allegheny Front! Listen here (Oct 2023)
*Our recent herbarium-based poison ivy work was featured on The Allegheny Front! Listen here (Sept 2023). And made the cover of American Journal of Botany! (October 2023)
*With support from Richard King Mellon Foundation, we are launching a new science communication project at the museum on increasing public understanding and action on introduced plant invasions. [press release here] (July 2023).
Welcome Dr. Rachel Reeb to the museum, as botany postdoctoral fellow and the coordinator for the project!
*Exciting new results out led by postdoc Ben Lee and collaborators showing phenological responses between overstory and understory species differ across North temperate deciduous forests over the past century using >5,500 herbarium specimens. Several press releases and press coverage, including Pittsburgh's NPR station WESA! [read paper online here] (December 2022)
*2022 Coulter Review in International Journal of Plant Sciences on herbarium specimens as big data sources of plant traits [online here] (February 2022)
*Abby Yancy is funded as a postbac student through the NSF REPS program! (November 2021)
*Chatham undergraduate Alyssa McCormick's research on poison ivy feature in new exhibit label as part of new We Are Nature exhibition at Carnegie Museum of Natural History (November 2021)
*Welcome Dr. Molly Ng to CMNH Botany who joined us as the Rea Postdoctoral Fellow! Molly is using CM herbarium specimens, CM paleobotany collection, and fieldwork at the museum's Powdermill Nature Reserve to study trait evolution and diversity in ferns. Her project is exciting and innovative in many ways, one of which being integrating herbarium, paleobotanical, and field-collected data. (August 2021)
*New paper out in Plants, People, Planet led by postdoc Rachel Reeb on our work with invasive plant science communication. The cross-museum collaborative project culminates in new exhibition to open this spring! (Spring 2025)
*Check out a new essay with historian Dr. Molly Hardy on the role of herbaria in an age of extinction in Arnoldia: The Nature of Trees. Special Issue on “Extinction” edited by Matthew Battles, Yota Batsaki, and Peter Crane. (Summer 2024)
*Congrats to former NSF REPS student Abby Yancy on her first authored publication using iNaturalist data to quantify "ephemerality" in forest wildflowers. (May 2024)
*Our research with century old roots on herbarium specimens was highlighted in Smithsonian Magazine (March 2024)
*Our recent science communication project on invasive plants featured on The Allegheny Front! Listen here (Oct 2023)
*Our recent herbarium-based poison ivy work was featured on The Allegheny Front! Listen here (Sept 2023). And made the cover of American Journal of Botany! (October 2023)
*With support from Richard King Mellon Foundation, we are launching a new science communication project at the museum on increasing public understanding and action on introduced plant invasions. [press release here] (July 2023).
Welcome Dr. Rachel Reeb to the museum, as botany postdoctoral fellow and the coordinator for the project!
*Exciting new results out led by postdoc Ben Lee and collaborators showing phenological responses between overstory and understory species differ across North temperate deciduous forests over the past century using >5,500 herbarium specimens. Several press releases and press coverage, including Pittsburgh's NPR station WESA! [read paper online here] (December 2022)
*2022 Coulter Review in International Journal of Plant Sciences on herbarium specimens as big data sources of plant traits [online here] (February 2022)
*Abby Yancy is funded as a postbac student through the NSF REPS program! (November 2021)
*Chatham undergraduate Alyssa McCormick's research on poison ivy feature in new exhibit label as part of new We Are Nature exhibition at Carnegie Museum of Natural History (November 2021)
*Welcome Dr. Molly Ng to CMNH Botany who joined us as the Rea Postdoctoral Fellow! Molly is using CM herbarium specimens, CM paleobotany collection, and fieldwork at the museum's Powdermill Nature Reserve to study trait evolution and diversity in ferns. Her project is exciting and innovative in many ways, one of which being integrating herbarium, paleobotanical, and field-collected data. (August 2021)
*New paper in PNAS on the research impacts of combining open access museum and community science data (press release). (February 2021)
*Heberling and Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie and co-authors win 2020 George Mercer Award by the Ecological Society of America (press release). (August 2020)
*Phenology research with Sara Kuebbing (University of Pittsburgh) covered by The Allegheny Front radio program. Listen here. (March 2020)
*We were awarded funding from the US National Science Foundation to expand our research on phenological mismatch between forest layers! News coverage here. (February 2020)
*Recent review on a century of herbarium specimen use in BioScience (link) featured on the cover of October issue! Read the iDigBio Research Spotlight. (October 2019)
*Press releases (here and here) on new research with collaborators showing different responses to climate change between overstory trees and understory wildflowers that depend upon high light in the spring. News coverage here, here, here, and here. (2019)
*New paper looking at mycorrhizal communities from century old herbarium specimen roots (link) (museum blog). (2019)
*Heberling and Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie and co-authors win 2020 George Mercer Award by the Ecological Society of America (press release). (August 2020)
*Phenology research with Sara Kuebbing (University of Pittsburgh) covered by The Allegheny Front radio program. Listen here. (March 2020)
*We were awarded funding from the US National Science Foundation to expand our research on phenological mismatch between forest layers! News coverage here. (February 2020)
*Recent review on a century of herbarium specimen use in BioScience (link) featured on the cover of October issue! Read the iDigBio Research Spotlight. (October 2019)
*Press releases (here and here) on new research with collaborators showing different responses to climate change between overstory trees and understory wildflowers that depend upon high light in the spring. News coverage here, here, here, and here. (2019)
*New paper looking at mycorrhizal communities from century old herbarium specimen roots (link) (museum blog). (2019)
About MasonContact |
I am a curator in the Section of Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. My research program seeks to understand the ecophysiological strategies of plants in the context of global change, especially plant invasions and climate change. I am fascinated by herbarium specimens and their roles in understanding change in the Anthropocene. As a museum-based scientist, I use herbarium specimens in my research, and as a curator, I facilitate innovative and longstanding uses of natural history collections by other researchers.
I also hold adjunct appointments at the nearby University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences and the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation (Carnegie Mellon University). Mason Heberling
Section of Botany Carnegie Museum of Natural History 4400 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA [email protected] Blog: collectedonthisday.com Twitter: @jmheberling |