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Manierre Award winners

The endowed Manierre Research Award honors Dr. William Manierre and Anne Manierre for their long support of the Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation. As accomplished naturalists in their own right, with an intimate knowledge of the Huron Mts. landscape and biota, the Manierres have provided HMWF researchers with invaluable assistance and insight. Dr. William Manierre’s own studies of the bryophytes, lichens, and vascular plants of the Huron Moutain Club lands account for significant portions of the unusually well-documented biological diversity of the area (see our ‘All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory‘).

The Manierre Award is presented in recognition of a peer-reviewed publication reporting research conducted under the auspices of the Huron Mt. Wildlife Foundation. Since its creation in 2000, recipients include:

2021: Beginning in 2012, Dr. Jalene LaMontagne, of DePaul University, has been studying cone and seed production of white spruce trees. As a boreal species at the southern edge of its range, reproductive success of spruce is particularly valuable for anticipating the longer-term effects of climate change. Spruce is a ‘masting’ species — it produces cones in very large quantities at intervals of several years — so understanding the environmental controls and triggers for ‘mast’ years is particularly important and challenging, requiring long-term monitoring. Two recent publications by LaMontagne with grad student Abigail Leeper were selected for the 2021 Manierre Award.

  • Leeper, Abigail C., Beth A. Lawrence, Jalene M. LaMontagne. 2020. Plant-available soil nutrients have a limited infuence on cone production patterns of individual white spruce trees. Oecologia 194:101-111. doi:10.1007/s00442-020-04759-w
  • Leeper, A. C., and J. M. LaMontagne. 2021. Cone characteristics and insect predation levels vary across years in mast seeding white spruce. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 51:. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2020-0442

2020: Dr. Steve Voelker used novel analyses of tree-cores from white pines near Rush Lake to establish a ‘proxy’ for past local winter climatic conditions and past states of larger-scale climatic circulations. Measurements of growth rates (width of growth rings) have long been used as indicators of climate conditions at the time the ring was laid down. Voelker and colleagues used chemical analyses of oxygen and carbon isotope ratios in wood laid down in mid- and late growth season of each year. Voelker was at the University of Utah when the field work was done and is currently at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

  • Voelker, S. L., S.-Y. S. Wang, T. E. Dawson, J. S. Roden, C. J. Still, F. J. Longstaffe, and A. Ayalon. 2019. Tree-ring isotopes adjacent to Lake Superior reveal cold winter anomalies for the Great Lakes region of North America. Scientific Reports 9:article 4412  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40907-w

2019: Dr. John L. Willis, with advisor, Dr.  Michael B. Walters, of Michigan State University, conducted Ph.D. dissertation research on the requirements of seedlings of northern hardwood tree species.  The research focused specifically on the interactions between substrate type (rotting wood vs. mineral soil), mineral nutrient availability, and the presence of mycorrhizal fungi.  Willis is now with the Southern Research Station of the U.S. Forest Service.

2018: Dr. Ashley Coble, with her advisor, Dr. Amy Marcarelli,  received the 2018 award for two papers based on her dissertation research at Michigan Technological University.  Dr. Coble is currently a research scientist based in Corvallis, OR, with the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI).

2017: Drs. Louise Chavarie, Michigan State University, and Mara Zimmerman, Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife.  Chavarie prepared the award paper reporting multi-faceted work on the dimorphic lake trout populations of Rush Lake, a project initiated by Zimmerman a decade ago..

2016: Dr. Evelyn W. Williams, Chicago Botanic Garden, for studies of the ecology and evolutionary relationships of Botrychium ferns: .

2015: Dr. Rose Marie Muzika, University of Missouri, for work, with collaborators, using fire scars on red pine stumps and snags to reconstruct several centuries of fire history for portions of the Huron Mountains.

2014: Dr. Oliver Gailing, Michigan Technological University, for work on the ecological genetics of oak populations of the Huron Mountains

2013: Dr. Robert Fahey, The Morton Arboretum, for an analysis of the dynamics and role of eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) in old-growth forests throughout the upper midwest.  The Huron Mountains served as a major research site for this project:

2012: Dr. Kenneth Hinkel, University of Cincinnati and Dr. Frederick Nelson, University of Delaware (now University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee), for long-term work based on an extensive network of microclimate sensors and loggers describing how the diverse terrain of the Huron Mountains interacts with the proximity of Lake Superior to produce variation in microclimate:

2011: Ashley Burtner, Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystem Research, Ann Arbor, MI,  for a paper synthesizing several research approaches and landscape-scale watershed comparisons to assess factors influencing in-stream ecosystem function.

2010: Dr. Randy Kolka, Center for Research on Ecosystem Change, Northern Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, for studies of hydrology and ground water along Fisher Creek showing that nearly the entire summer stream-flow originates as snow-melt, suggesting that climate-change-related changes in snowfall patterns could have large consequences for small streams in the region.

2009: Dr. Philip Myers, University of Michigan, and colleagues for their use of the  reference ecosystems of the Huron Mts., along with data-sets from earlier researchers, to document changes in animal communities and to assess hypotheses for causes of those changes:

2008: Dr. Casey J. Huckins, Michigan Technological University, for two papers based on long-term studies of the biology of coaster brook-trout in the Salmon-Trout River:

2007: Dr. Bryant C. Scharenbroch, The Morton Arboretum, for two papers on soil properties — particularly, response to canopy gaps — in old-growth forests.  These are derived from Scharenbroch’s Ph.D. Thesis (University of Wisconsin – Madison) with  James Bockheim:

2003: Dr. Mark F. O’Brien, University of Michigan, for documenting the diversity of dragonflies and damselflies:

2001: Dr. Dana L. Richter, Michitan Technological University, for his survey of blister rust in white pines of the Huron Mts.

  • Richter, D.L. 1998. White pine blister rust in the forests of the Huron Mountain Club, Marquette Co., MI. The Michigan Botanist (1998) 37:91-98.

2000: Dr. Kerry D. Woods, Bennington College, for an analysis of forest community dynamics on permanent plots established at the Huron Mts. in 1962:

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