Professor of Biology
Current Research
Our lab focuses on how climate change affects the flowering, leafing out, fruiting, and leaf senescence times of plants, the migration times of birds and the flight times of insects in Massachusetts. We consider the potential for ecological mismatches among species caused by changes in timing, especially the differences in the sensitivity of trees and wildflowers to spring warming. Our main focus is Concord, Massachusetts, due to the availability of extensive phenological and species abundance records kept by Henry David Thoreau and later naturalists. We are expanding the geographic range of our investigations to Eastern North America, Europe, and East Asia using the perspective provided by herbarium specimens. We are also participating in an international network of botanical gardens investigating variation among herbaceous perennial species in phenology. An additional interest is investigating noise pollution in protected areas and cities. An ongoing activity involves producing conservation biology textbooks and working with co-authors to produce textbooks in other languages. Over the past four years, we have also been investigating the impacts of non-native honeybees on native pollinating insects in suburban Newton and at the Arnold Arboretum.
Richard Primack is not currently accepting new graduate students.
For popular articles about our work, visit BU News.
The most current source of our activities, including the Conservation Biology Translation Project, can be found on our lab blog and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primackclimatelab/
Selected Publications
- Gallinat AS, AJ Miller-Rushing, TL Lloyd-Evans, ER Ellwood, CT Callaghan and RB Primack. 2025. Integrating historical records and citizen science data to understand bird responses to climate change in Concord, Massachusetts: Thoreau to eBird. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, pp.1-18.
- Austin MW, AD Kaul, AB Smith, M Rothendler and RB Primack. 2025. Herbarium specimens reveal regional patterns of tallgrass prairie invasion and changing species abundance across 130 years. New Phytologist 251:881-895.
- Ahlstrand NI, RB Primack, MW Austin, ZA Panchen, C Römermann, and AJ Miller‐Rushing. 2025. The promise of digital herbarium specimens in large‐scale phenology research. New Phytologist. doi.org/10.1111/nph.70178.
- Landauer KT, S Vaughn, RB Primack. 2024. Honey bees and native flower visitors in a Boston suburb: Assessing coexistence and conservation strategies. Biological Conservation 299: doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110819
- Primack RB and AJ Miller-Rushing. “Thoreau’s Contributions to Climate Change Science.” The Dial: A Journal of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society, vol. 1 no. 1, 2024, p. 76-96. Project MUSE, doi.org/10.1353/dial.2024.a942977.
- Gotelli NG, DB Booher, MC Urban, W Ulrich, AV Suarez, DK Skelly, and RB Primack (2023). Estimating species relative abundances from museum records. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 14:431-443.
- Primack RB, AS Gallinat, ER Ellwood, TM Crimmins, MD Schwartz, MD Staudinger, and AJ Miller-Rushing (2023). Ten best practices for effective phenological research. International Journal of Biometeorology 67:1509-1522.
- Lee BR, TK Miller, C Rosche, Y Yang, JM Heberling, SE Kuebbing, and RB Primack (2022). Wildflower phenological escape differs by continent and spring temperature. Nature Communications 13:7157.