Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest
Encyclopedia
Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is an area of land in the White Mountains
of New Hampshire
that functions as an outdoor laboratory for ecological studies. It was initially established in 1955 by the United States Forest Service
for the study of the relationship between forest cover and water quality and supply.
. The first stream in the forest was fitted with monitoring devices in 1956. Subsequently, seven additional headwater streams and their associated watershed
s were delimited for study. Each such zone functions essentially as a closed environmental system. Since efflux of water, minerals, and water-bound organisms leaving each watershed (and leaving the entire forest as well) can be monitored, the effects of changes experimentally introduced into the system can be measured.
. The forest preservation the research promotes helps to protect watershed chemistry, ambient humidity, seasonal temperature fluctuations, and wildlife habitats.
, who began taking his botany classes for field trips to this area of the White Mountain National Forest
in the early 1950s, and Forest Service scientist Robert Pierce. Bormann proposed to Pierce that the area set aside by the Forest Service for watershed studies be used for closed-system ecological studies.
In 1960, soon after the establishment of HBEF, ecologist Gene Likens
and geologist Noye Johnson, both from Dartmouth, joined the research team. In 1963, the group received a $60,000 grant from the National Science Foundation
to study "Hydrological-Mineral Cycle Interaction in a Small Watershed". This study evolved into the series of longitudinal studies now referred to as the "Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study", or HBES. The early ecosystem monitoring was aimed at studying the effects of forest management
practices on water flow and quality. These data have been helpful as baselines for the increasingly sophisticated areas of ongoing research in the forest. HBES has spawned over 2000 scientific papers, perhaps most important a 1968 study that documented the widespread presence of "acid rain
". HBRF was designated as a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in 1988 and has some of the longest on-going ecological datasets.
Currently the study comprises researchers from multiple universities, including Dartmouth College
, Yale University
, Cornell University
, Syracuse University
, SUNY ESF, the University of New Hampshire
, Keene State College
and the University of Vermont
. The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation provides housing for research assistants at nearby Pleasant View Farm and recently completed the purchase of cottages for visiting and resident scientists around Mirror Lake, the point at which Hubbard Brook exits the experimental forest.
in central New Hampshire, within the town of Woodstock
, the 31 square kilometres (12 sq mi) bowl-shaped forested valley has hilly terrain, ranging from 222 to 1015 m (728.3 to 3,330.1 ft) in altitude. The forest comprises nine individual watersheds, each of which drains into Hubbard Brook, and then through Mirror Lake, before emptying into the Pemigewasset River
near West Thornton
.
White Mountains (New Hampshire)
The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. Part of the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered the most rugged mountains in New England...
of New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
that functions as an outdoor laboratory for ecological studies. It was initially established in 1955 by the United States Forest Service
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...
for the study of the relationship between forest cover and water quality and supply.
Forest land management
In 1955 the first tract was dedicated, in the Hubbard Brook watershed, just west of the village of West Thornton, New HampshireThornton, New Hampshire
Thornton is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,490 at the 2010 census.- History :Thornton was incorporated in 1763, and named for Doctor Matthew Thornton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.- Geography :...
. The first stream in the forest was fitted with monitoring devices in 1956. Subsequently, seven additional headwater streams and their associated watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
s were delimited for study. Each such zone functions essentially as a closed environmental system. Since efflux of water, minerals, and water-bound organisms leaving each watershed (and leaving the entire forest as well) can be monitored, the effects of changes experimentally introduced into the system can be measured.
Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study
For the first five or six years after its establishment the HBEF was used for research in forestry but soon its value for study of the forest ecosystem was recognized and it attracted the interest of researchers from major universities. The work at Hubbard Brook has led researchers there and elsewhere to try to model or better understand the complex forest ecosystem, including its interaction with humans. HBEF research teams have succeeded in elucidating a number of vexing environmental problems, most notably the harmful effects of acid rainAcid rain
Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions . It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen...
. The forest preservation the research promotes helps to protect watershed chemistry, ambient humidity, seasonal temperature fluctuations, and wildlife habitats.
History
The idea for using the small watershed approach being used at Hubbard Brook for studies of elemental budgets and cycles was born with Professor Herbert Bormann of Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, who began taking his botany classes for field trips to this area of the White Mountain National Forest
White Mountain National Forest
The White Mountain National Forest is a federally-managed forest contained within the White Mountains in the northeastern United States. It was established in 1918 as a result of the Weeks Act of 1911; federal acquisition of land had already begun in 1914. It has a total area of...
in the early 1950s, and Forest Service scientist Robert Pierce. Bormann proposed to Pierce that the area set aside by the Forest Service for watershed studies be used for closed-system ecological studies.
In 1960, soon after the establishment of HBEF, ecologist Gene Likens
Gene Likens
Gene Elden Likens is an American ecologist and a leading pioneer in the study of acid rain.Likens got his B.S. at Manchester College in 1957, and his M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He joined the faculty of Dartmouth College in 1961. He was co-founder in 1963 of a group...
and geologist Noye Johnson, both from Dartmouth, joined the research team. In 1963, the group received a $60,000 grant from the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
to study "Hydrological-Mineral Cycle Interaction in a Small Watershed". This study evolved into the series of longitudinal studies now referred to as the "Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study", or HBES. The early ecosystem monitoring was aimed at studying the effects of forest management
Forest management
200px|thumb|right|[[Sustainable development|Sustainable]] forest management carried out by [[Complejo Forestal y Maderero Panguipulli|Complejo Panguipulli]] has contributed to the preservation of the forested landscape around [[Neltume]], a sawmill town in Chile...
practices on water flow and quality. These data have been helpful as baselines for the increasingly sophisticated areas of ongoing research in the forest. HBES has spawned over 2000 scientific papers, perhaps most important a 1968 study that documented the widespread presence of "acid rain
Acid rain
Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions . It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen...
". HBRF was designated as a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in 1988 and has some of the longest on-going ecological datasets.
Currently the study comprises researchers from multiple universities, including Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
, SUNY ESF, the University of New Hampshire
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire , United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire. The university is...
, Keene State College
Keene State College
Keene State College is a liberal arts college in Keene, New Hampshire. It is a member of the University System of New Hampshire and of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges....
and the University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
. The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation provides housing for research assistants at nearby Pleasant View Farm and recently completed the purchase of cottages for visiting and resident scientists around Mirror Lake, the point at which Hubbard Brook exits the experimental forest.
Hubbard Brook ecosystem
Located in the White Mountain National ForestWhite Mountain National Forest
The White Mountain National Forest is a federally-managed forest contained within the White Mountains in the northeastern United States. It was established in 1918 as a result of the Weeks Act of 1911; federal acquisition of land had already begun in 1914. It has a total area of...
in central New Hampshire, within the town of Woodstock
Woodstock, New Hampshire
Woodstock is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,374 at the 2010 census. Woodstock includes the village of North Woodstock, the commercial center. Its extensive land area is largely forested, and includes the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Parts of the...
, the 31 square kilometres (12 sq mi) bowl-shaped forested valley has hilly terrain, ranging from 222 to 1015 m (728.3 to 3,330.1 ft) in altitude. The forest comprises nine individual watersheds, each of which drains into Hubbard Brook, and then through Mirror Lake, before emptying into the Pemigewasset River
Pemigewasset River
The Pemigewasset River , known locally as "The Pemi", is a river in the state of New Hampshire, the United States. It is in length and drains approximately...
near West Thornton
Thornton, New Hampshire
Thornton is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,490 at the 2010 census.- History :Thornton was incorporated in 1763, and named for Doctor Matthew Thornton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.- Geography :...
.
Forest
The forest is mostly a "second-growth" mix of northern hardwoods (80 to 90%) and red spruce-balsam fir (10 to 20%). Beech, yellow birch, and sugar maple experience their greatest importance at 570 metres (1,870.1 ft), 570 to 650 m (1,870.1 to 2,132.5 ft), and 720 metres (2,362.2 ft), respectively, with paper birch, fir, and spruce at 720m to treeline (>775 metres (2,542.7 ft)). Mountain maple, striped maple, and mountain ash characterize the understory at various elevations, with mountain maple being ubiquitous. Five of the seven canopy species are valued for various reasons. Harsh winter conditions do not allow for rapid recovery, unlike more humid climates that recover net primary productivity within years, the northeastern version needs decades and in the case of the forest floor possibly centuries to recover. The forest was partly cleared for agriculture starting in the late 18th century and was also logged. By 1920 over 200 million board feet (470,000 m³) of timber had been harvested from the valley.Soils
Soil is predominantly well-drained Spodosol derived from glacial till, with sandy loam textures, combining to produce an evident, but narrow E horizon. The forest floor is characterized by the complete suite of taxonomic subhorizons, has been classified as mor type humus, with mull occurring beneath maple stands at lower elevations (600 metres (1,968.5 ft)). It is acidic (pH about 4.5 or less) and relatively infertile for agricultural purposes. Aluminum and iron are preferentially leached from the upper soil horizons to an underlying layer(s) that is characteristic of the soil order. Hence, Silica is retained and at times mixes with the forest floor. Soil depths are highly variable, with shallow strands of organic matter comprising the entire profile at higher elevations (folist) or underlain by sandy unsorted material (podzol).Climate
Annual precipitation averages about 1400 millimetres (55.1 in), with one-third to one-quarter as snow. January averages about -9 °C and the average July temperature is 18 °C. The forest averages 145 frost-free days per year.Areas of research
- Hydrology, including ecosystem water flow, snowfall analysis, and long-term ice-in/ice-out measurements
- Environmental factors encouraging or restricting tree growth, and effects of deforestation on mineral flux
- Effects of environmental changes on bird behavior and insect population, especially regarding reproductive capacity
- Effects of acid rain and resultant soil mineral changes on micro-environments of plant root systems
- Cycling of Nitrogen, Sulfur, Phosphorus, Mercury, Calcium, and Carbon, and effects of pollution on flux of these and other minerals