Long-Term Ecological Research at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest

该奖项将在新罕布什尔州的哈伯德布鲁克实验森林启动一个长期生态研究项目。本研究的总体目标是更好地了解北方硬木针叶树流域对大规模干扰的响应，特别是在以下方面：(1)植被结构、组成和生产力；（ii）死亡有机物的动态；大气-陆地-水生联系；(4)异养群体动态。研究将通过实验、调查和长期监测研究在具有对比干扰历史的地点进行。它将提供关于生态系统对干扰的长期反应的宝贵信息，以及社会评估管理和政策对森林生态系统完整性的影响所需的信息。具体而言，研究将研究：(1)不同发育阶段的植被过程，包括邻里竞争和间隙期演替，以及演替早期的生物量和养分积累；(2)河流和土壤中有机质的加工，洞木的分解，有机碎屑坝的形成和破坏；(3)生物地球化学过程，包括干湿沉积、水流流出、水文模拟和山坡水文，以及内部离子预算的构建；(4)繁殖鸟类、植食性昆虫和病原菌种群动态及白尾鹿营养生态。为这个项目组建的多研究员、多机构的研究团队将带来真正强大的专业知识和过去生产力的累积记录。这个小组把老科学家和年轻科学家的能力结合起来，发挥了很大的优势。哈伯德布鲁克场址的设施非常适合该项目，并将得到合作机构提供的大量资源的补充。美国农业部/林务局将继续发挥关键作用，作为该地点的管理者、科学合作伙伴和大量项目实物支持的提供者。这确实是多方人才的努力。该计划建议为这个为期五年的持续项目提供第一年的资助。

This award will initiate a Long-Term Ecological Research project at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire. The overall goal of the research is a better understanding of the response of northern hardwood-conifer watersheds to large-scale disturbance, particularly with regard to (i) vegetation structure, composition and productivity; (ii) dynamics of dead organic matter; (iii) atmosphere-terrestrial-aquatic linkages; and (iv) heterotroph population dynamics. The research will be carried out on sites with contrasting disturbance history using experimental, survey, and long-term monitoring studies. It will provide valuable information on long-term ecosystem responses to disturbance, information needed by society to assess the effects of management and policy on the integrity of forest ecosystems. Specifically, the research will examine (1) vegetation processes including neighborhood competition and gap-phase succession at different stages of development, and biomass and nutrient accumulation in the early stages of succession; (2) organic matter processing in streams and soils, decomposition of bole wood, and the formation and disruption of organic debris dams; (3) biogeochemical processes including wet and dry deposition, stream outflow, hydrologic modeling and hillslope hydrology, and construction of internal ionic budgets; and (4) population dynamics of breeding birds, phytophagous insects and a pathogenic fungus, and the nutritional ecology of whitetailed deer. The multi-investigator, multi-institutional research team assembled for this project will bring to bear a truly formidable array of expertise and accumulative record of past productivity. The team combines the abilities of both older and younger scientists to great advantage. Facilities at the Hubbard Brook site are excellent for the project and will be augmented by significant resources available at the cooperating institutions. The USDA/Forest Service will continue to play a key role as steward for the site, collaborator in the science, and provider of large amounts of project support in kind. This is genuinely a multi-talented effort. The Program recommends that the first year of funding be awarded for this five-year continuing project.