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

该合同将支持海洋生物实验室（MBL）控制环境设施的一部分，以支持气候变化和人类土地利用对陆地和水生生态系统影响的研究和教育。新设施将包含可控的环境室，用于检测环境变量（如温度、光线和二氧化碳）对碳、氮、磷等关键元素循环的影响，微量气体与大气的交换以及溶解碳和颗粒碳和营养物质的运动。一对植物生长室将能够在强光下保持低于冰点的温度，这对于研究春季和秋季以及北极地区一年中的任何时候延长生长季节的气候变化尤为重要。第二对生长箱将被优化用于微生物培养和土壤孵化工作。这两组实验箱都可用于水生土壤和沉积物以及水生和陆地生态系统微观环境的实验。这些设施将在MBL的大量多研究者研究项目中共享。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、梅岛海峡和哈佛森林）的研究，以及越来越多的研究微生物功能的项目，这些项目贯穿了MBL的研究项目。新设施的主要影响将是能够对个别生态系统过程和生态系统组成部分进行控制良好的实验，并结合对同一过程和组成部分进行深入的实地研究和实地实验。新设施还将通过生态系统中心的教育项目产生更广泛的影响。项目的基础。作为中心学期环境科学项目、本科生暑期研究体验项目和动手科学作家项目的一部分，由学生进行研究。这些设施将成为海洋生物实验室基础设施的重要补充，以满足其长期研究任务，并结合密集、先进的“动手”教育。

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.