Round six: sixteen science and ecology changes

Research checked September 8, 2026. Exactly eleven existing stories received substantive new evidence and five distinct research stories were added. These changes are not counts of cosmetic edits. Existing catalog subjects and prior source records were reviewed before reservation. No shared catalog, changelog, or Git files were edited.

Source selection and cumulative budgets

Targeted batches favored original research. The inaccessible 1987 Lebanon seedling paper was dropped; the replacement is a controlled 2002 pitch-pine nutrient experiment. Tentative hibernaculum, wild-bee and cedar-succession updates were redirected to existing snake-diagnosis, cranberry scent-trap and ghost-forest stories because the new findings fit those narratives directly. No new incident-only accident or emergency-response story is included.

New source URLs were checked against the baseline normalized source index. No exact normalized matches occurred, but the full 2018 wetland report is explicitly treated as the same underlying source as the project overview already cited in the pond story. Its prior introductory narrative was compressed to preserve room for substantive odonate methods/results. Report versions and institutional/publisher/PMC mirrors do not receive separate allowances. All other added papers are distinct from the sources already used in the updated entries.

New sections use original paraphrase and short adjacent citations, without reproduced figures or long quotations. Counts below exclude citation labels. For new pages, a stricter displayed-prose check also counts title, lede, section headings and the general limits paragraph; all remain at or below 200 words. Source-access notes describe research work, not additional uninspected scientific results. Existing-source paraphrases were not expanded, apart from the explicitly budgeted wetland-report addition.

The beetle paper first author is Lombardo, despite the USFS filename naming Sullivan. The swamp-pink review is dated September 2021 on its cover, not the search engine’s recent crawl estimate. The cedar salinity treatment began in 2004 and was published in 2021. The cranberry scent follow-up appears in a February 2026 issue although its DOI includes 2025. Snake fungal detections are sampled annual prevalence, not mortality or a full regional census.

Changes and inspected evidence

1. southern-pine-beetle-2010

  • Kind: updated
  • File: entry/southern-pine-beetle-2010.html
  • Addition: Adds paired heat-exposure experiments using New Jersey beetle-infested bark, distinguishing brief summer heat tolerance from winter range limits.
  • Added narrative: 124 words.
  • Period metadata: 2010–2022
  • Lombardo and colleagues, heat-tolerance experiments (2022) — Nine-page primary paper retrieved; New Jersey bark-collection methods and emergence comparisons inspected.

2. spongy-moth-carbon-experiment-2007

  • Kind: updated
  • File: entry/spongy-moth-carbon-experiment-2007.html
  • Addition: Extends the defoliation story through a 2019 burn and two decades of carbon accounting, separating annual productivity from cumulative carbon balance.
  • Added narrative: 127 words.
  • Period metadata: 2005–2024
  • Clark, Skowronski and Gallagher (2024) — Full twelve-page PDF retrieved; abstract, site chronology and flux/biomass methods inspected.

3. cranberry-false-blossom-research

  • Kind: updated
  • File: entry/cranberry-false-blossom-research.html
  • Addition: Adds an experimental failure: defense elicitors neither suppressed false blossom infection nor improved resistance, with curative and preventive questions distinguished.
  • Added narrative: 122 words.
  • Period metadata: 1929–2026
  • Rodriguez-Saona and colleagues, defense-elicitor study (2021) — Indexed full-text statistical methods and discussion read; publisher PDF conclusion cross-checked.

4. cranberry-scent-color-trap-experiment

  • Kind: updated
  • File: entry/cranberry-scent-color-trap-experiment.html
  • Addition: Adds a fifty-bed follow-up measuring berry outcomes and landscape-dependent responses to scent lures, beyond the earlier trap-only experiment.
  • Added narrative: 125 words.
  • Period metadata: 2019–2026
  • Ben-Zvi and colleagues, floral volatile and pollination (2026) — Indexed full abstract, study-site methods and issue metadata inspected; direct publisher retrieval returned 403. DOI contains 2025, but issue date is February 1, 2026.

5. kirkwood-cohansey-groundwater-models

  • Kind: updated
  • File: entry/kirkwood-cohansey-groundwater-models.html
  • Addition: Adds the three-basin field assessment underlying the models, including recharge versus discharge wetlands and seasonal water-budget reversals.
  • Added narrative: 122 words.
  • Period metadata: 1997–2012
  • Walker, Nicholson and Storck, hydrologic assessment (2011) — Complete official report abstract and contents inspected; distinct field-assessment report, not the existing 2012 modeling report.

6. swamp-pink-water-level-study-2009

  • Kind: updated
  • File: entry/swamp-pink-water-level-study-2009.html
  • Addition: Adds Camden County declines despite stable monitored habitat and an early deer-exclusion response, preserving the study’s causal limits.
  • Added narrative: 131 words.
  • Period metadata: 1988–2021
  • USFWS swamp-pink five-year review (September 2021) — Cover date and herbivory section, printed pp. 26–29, read; summarizes monitoring and an early exclusion-fence response.

7. pine-snake-sores-diagnostic-study

  • Kind: updated
  • File: entry/pine-snake-sores-diagnostic-study.html
  • Addition: Adds six-year fungal-detection variation and sex/body-site comparisons, showing that lesions and test positivity followed different patterns.
  • Added narrative: 120 words.
  • Period metadata: 2018–2025
  • Burger and colleagues, annual and sampling-site variation (2025) — Complete PubMed author abstract inspected; article date March 6, 2025 and DOI 10.3390/jof11030206 checked.

8. pinelands-lidar-fuel-measurement

  • Kind: updated
  • File: entry/pinelands-lidar-fuel-measurement.html
  • Addition: Adds a fire-history comparison showing contrasting vertical forest structures after repeated wildfire and prescribed burning, including nonsignificant trends.
  • Added narrative: 115 words.
  • Period metadata: 2004–2025
  • Warner, Skowronski and La Puma (2020) — Full institutional abstract and indexed PDF conclusion/statistical qualifications inspected.

9. mullica-ghost-forest-study-2021

  • Kind: updated
  • File: entry/mullica-ghost-forest-study-2021.html
  • Addition: Adds a controlled cedar-seedling experiment separating salinity from flooding and comparing mortality times under the two water regimes.
  • Added narrative: 122 words.
  • Period metadata: 1930–2021
  • Sedia, Zimmermann and Hinesley (2021) — Primary paper’s indexed methods and mortality results inspected, including 2004 treatment start and 2021 issue date.

10. pitcher-mosquito-laboratory-1999

  • Kind: updated
  • File: entry/pitcher-mosquito-laboratory-1999.html
  • Addition: Adds an antagonistic-selection experiment that reversed the correlation between daily rhythmicity and seasonal day-length response in Pine Barrens mosquitoes.
  • Added narrative: 117 words.
  • Period metadata: 1999–2017
  • Bradshaw, Emerson and Holzapfel (2012) — Indexed full abstract and local-population methods inspected; author-hosted PDF discussion cross-checked.

11. created-ponds-pathogen-study

  • Kind: updated
  • File: entry/created-ponds-pathogen-study.html
  • Addition: Adds the thirty-three-pond dragonfly/damselfly comparison and the failure of a simple imported degradation score to explain its assemblages.
  • Added narrative: 84 words.
  • Period metadata: 2012–2018
  • Bunnell and colleagues, full wetland report (2018) — Complete sixty-six-page PDF downloaded; odonate methods printed pp. 13–14 and results pp. 31–32 read. Same underlying Commission investigation as the earlier project overview.
  • Cumulative original Commission overview plus full-report narrative charge: 134 words. The earlier USGS pesticide/pathogen report remains a separate authored source.

12. pinelands-fire-turbulence-experiments

  • Kind: new
  • File: entry/pinelands-fire-turbulence-experiments.html
  • Addition: Instrumented burns revealed how a canopy changes the turbulent air around flames.
  • Added narrative: 139 words.
  • Period metadata: 2011–2023
  • Conservative whole displayed-prose source charge: 196 words (includes title, headings, lede and limits).
  • Limits: Four different field fires were compared; this was not a randomized test of vegetation alone.
  • Desai and colleagues, turbulence synthesis (2023) — Full twenty-page paper downloaded; abstract and experiment-comparison table inspected, with institutional abstract cross-check.

13. pinelands-burned-litter-nutrient-experiment

  • Kind: new
  • File: entry/pinelands-burned-litter-nutrient-experiment.html
  • Addition: A greenhouse experiment separated nutrient release from nutrient uptake by young pitch pines.
  • Added narrative: 139 words.
  • Period metadata: 2002
  • Conservative whole displayed-prose source charge: 199 words (includes title, headings, lede and limits).
  • Limits: The full experimental tables were not audited. Nutrient mineralization and root uptake are different measurements.
  • Tuininga, Dighton and Gray (2002) — Complete institutional author abstract read; indexed author-paper uptake results cross-checked.

14. cranberry-white-grub-nematode-trial

  • Kind: new
  • File: entry/cranberry-white-grub-nematode-trial.html
  • Addition: Laboratory cups and planted pots tested whether insect-killing nematodes could reach a hidden pest.
  • Added narrative: 150 words.
  • Period metadata: 2002–2008
  • Conservative whole displayed-prose source charge: 199 words (includes title, headings, lede and limits).
  • Limits: Control percentages belong to greenhouse treatments; later commercial availability was not investigated.
  • Koppenhöfer and colleagues (2008) — Complete twelve-page author paper downloaded; abstract, introduction and laboratory/greenhouse methods inspected. Bibliography checked through the National Agricultural Library record.

15. pinelands-fire-suppression-edge-study

  • Kind: new
  • File: entry/pinelands-fire-suppression-edge-study.html
  • Addition: Land-cover and fire-history maps revealed a broad transition near human-altered land.
  • Added narrative: 142 words.
  • Period metadata: 1964–2013
  • Conservative whole displayed-prose source charge: 199 words (includes title, headings, lede and limits).
  • Limits: Mapped land cover and recorded fires support an association; they are not a randomized suppression experiment.
  • La Puma, Lathrop and Keuler (2013) — Author-posted full text: abstract, study objective, fire-period and watershed comparison results inspected.

16. mcdonalds-branch-water-vapor-tower

  • Kind: new
  • File: entry/mcdonalds-branch-water-vapor-tower.html
  • Addition: A forest tower measured an often-invisible part of the Pinelands water budget.
  • Added narrative: 145 words.
  • Period metadata: 2004–2012
  • Conservative whole displayed-prose source charge: 199 words (includes title, headings, lede and limits).
  • Limits: The tower sampled a changing upwind area. No raw flux data or model files were reanalyzed.
  • Sumner, Nicholson and Clark, USGS SIR 2012–5118 — Indexed report abstract, tower methods, source-area discussion and wetland/upland comparison inspected; Forest Service institutional abstract cross-checked.

Verification

All sixteen entries have a title, category-only eyebrow, explicit data-year, status, lede, factbox, source section and Updates navigation. Local links resolve. Updated research dates read September 8, 2026. The manifest contains exactly sixteen unique slugs, eleven updated and five new. No raw datasets or model outputs were recalculated.