Fall Conference Sunday Field Trip: SERC: Responses to climate change (Edgewater)

Registration will open on 9/4. Conference participants do not need to register.

$10 per person for those not registered for the conference.

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC): Forest diversity and coastal wetlands research on responses to climate change

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) scientists work to understand how ecosystems in the Chesapeake Bay and around the world function and respond to changing conditions, and have uncovered new ways to connect people and ecosystems for a sustainable future for over sixty years. Join senior researchers Melissa McCormick and Dennis Whigham as we explore two experimental conservation areas at SERC in Edgewater, Maryland. In addition to their research at SERC, Dr. McCormick and Dr. Whigham are cofounders of the North American Orchid Conservation Center (NAOCC).

Leader: Melissa McCormick & Dennis Whigham

Level of Difficulty: Easy, trail and boardwalk. Bathroom facilities on site.

Melissa McCormick, PhD. is a Senior Ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and is the Director of the North American Orchid Conservation Center (NAOCC). She earned her B.S. degree Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas, 1992) and Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior from Michigan State University (1999). Melissa joined SERC in 1999, first as a postdoctoral researcher, then a research scientist, and now as a senior ecologist. Her main research focus is on associations between plants and mycorrhizal fungi, with a strong focus on orchids. In 2011, with Dennis Whigham, she co-founded NAOCC at the Smithsonian. The goal of NAOCC is to safeguard the native orchids of the US and Canada, through propagation, preservation, and education. She has authored over 60 peer reviewed scientific publications about orchids, their mycorrhizal fungi, their pollinators, and other drivers of plant distribution.

Dennis Whigham, PhD. received his PhD from the University of North Carolina before joining the Smithsonian in 1977. He retired in December 2023, becoming the first recipient of the Smithsonian’s Distinguished Service Career Medal. Over 47 years at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), Dr. Whigham, working alongside various collaborators, contributed to more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and coedited 11 books. In 2025, he received the AOS Conservation Committee’s Keenan Award for in recognition of his long and distinguished career and numerous contributions to the conservation of native orchids.In retirement, Dennis remains actively involved in orchid research and conservation, with a special focus on the work of the North American Orchid Conservation Center (NAOCC), a visionary initiative he founded in 2011. Dennis’s interests and research in plant ecology have taken him to diverse habitats around the globe. His long-term research on woodland herbs, particularly orchids, inspired new research pathways and led to continent-wide efforts to preserve native orchids.

Event Co-Hosts: University of Maryland Extension Maryland Native Plants Program and University of Maryland School of Landscape Architecture

ONLINE REGISTRATION IS  REQUIRED. Limited to 30 people.

Directions will be included in registration confirmation.

      

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