Boston.com - The sparkling ice spread through a small stand of trees in the White Mountain National Forest so precisely, it could have been applied by Elsa, Disney's "Frozen" queen. Within the basketball court-size plot, everything glistened. Outside it, branches were bare.
The multi-year project is funded by the National Science Foundation and brings together scientists and others from half a dozen universities, including the University of Vermont, the University of Southern Maine, Cornell University and Texas Tech University. Some of the 10 research plots were iced last year and again last week to test the effects of repeated storms, while some plots are left alone as the control group.
While there is some speculation that the "ice belt" may shift northward due to climate change, or that ice storms may become more frequent, the jury's still out, Rustad said.