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

该奖项支持购买仪器，作为海洋生物实验室(MBL)受控环境设施的一部分，以支持关于气候变化和人类土地利用对陆地和水生生态系统的影响的研究和教育。新设施将包含受控环境室，用于实验，检查温度、光和二氧化碳等环境变量对碳、氮、磷等关键元素循环的影响，与大气的痕量气体交换，以及溶解和颗粒碳和营养物质的移动。一对植物生长室将能够在高光强下保持低于冰点的温度，这对于研究气候变化尤其重要，气候变化延长了春季和秋季的生长季，并在一年中的任何时候延长了北极的生长季。第二对生长室将进行优化，以进行微生物培养和土壤培养工作。这两对太空舱将可用于水生土壤和沉积物以及水生和陆地生态系统微宇宙的实验。这些设施将被设在MBL的大量多调查者研究项目共享。它们将有利于气候变化和人类土地利用的研究项目，包括三个长期生态研究地点(北极苔原、梅子岛海湾和哈佛森林)的研究，以及越来越多的研究微生物功能的项目，这些项目贯穿于MBL的研究项目。新设施的主要影响将是允许对单个生态系统进程和生态系统组成部分进行良好控制的试验，同时对相同的进程和组成部分进行密集的实地研究和实地试验。新设施还将通过生态系统中心的教育项目使用产生更广泛的影响，该项目强调以项目为基础。学生的研究是该中心环境科学学期计划、本科生暑期研究体验计划和实践科学作家计划的一部分。这些设施将是海洋生物实验室基础设施的重大补充，以满足其研究与强化、高级实践教育相结合的长期使命。

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.