Dr. Walter Carson's research on the eastern forests of North America has focused on introduced pests and pathogens, the consequences of over-abundant ungulates, and the pervasive practice of fire suppression. His findings demonstrate that introduced enemies and alteration of biome wide disturbance and browsing regimes have changed the very nature of a biome critical for carbon storage and sequestration. Future forests will have both a depauperate overstory, and a species poor understory, dominated by a small number of highly shade-tolerant, browse-tolerant, and fire intolerant plant species.