Dr. Hardiman is working with colleagues in the Plants and Games Lab and the Couture Lab of plant-insect chemical ecology to understand how the structural, functional, and taxonomic diversity of trees affect forest growth and productivity rates. This work will help us understand the ecological mechanisms behind species competition for resources and coexistence in diverse forests. Results from this study will help foresters and land managers make decisions to ensure the health and quality of forests throughout Indiana.
This work relies on mobile networks of environmental sensors deployed in the forest understory to measure light, temperature, and soil moisture.

We are also flying unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs—drones) over the forest to measure tree height and spectral response curves that tell us about the health and growth rates of the forest.
(Left: LiDAR and RGB imagery of the study plots at Martell Forest. Right: Hyperspectral imagery of the same plots.)