Controlled Environment Facilities for Examination of the Effects of Climate Change and Human Land Use on Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems

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This award supports the acquisition of instrumentation to be part of controlled environment facilities at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), to support research and education on the effects of climate change and human land use on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The new facilities will contain controlled environment chambers for experiments that examine the effects of environmental variables such as temperature, light and CO2 on the cycling of key elements such as C, N, and P, trace gas exchange with the atmosphere and the movements of dissolved and particulate carbon and nutrients. One pair of plant growth chambers will be capable of maintaining below-freezing temperatures under high light intensities, which are particularly important for examining climate changes that extend the growing season in the spring and fall, and in the Arctic at any time of year. A second pair of growth chambers will be optimized for microbial culture and soil incubation work. Both pairs of chambers will usable for experimentation on aquatic soils and sediments, and on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem microcosms. These facilities will be shared across a large number of multi-investigator research projects based at the MBL. They will benefit research programs on climate change and human land use, including research at three Long Term Ecological Research Sites (Arctic Tundra, Plum Island Sound, and Harvard Forest) and a growing number of projects that examine microbial functioning that cut across research programs at the MBL. The principal impact of the new facilities will be to allow well-controlled experimentation on individual ecosystem processes and ecosystem components, in conjunction with intensive field studies and field experiments of the same processes and components. The new facilities will also have a broader impact through their use by the Ecosystems Center's educational program, which emphasizes .project based. research by students as part of the Center's Semester in Environmental Science program, a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates program, and a hands-on science writers program. The facilities will represent a significant addition to the Marine Biological Laboratory's infrastructure for meeting its long-term mission of research combined with intensive, advanced "hands-on" education.