OPUS: A SYNTHESIS OF FIVE DECADES OF BIOGEOCHEMICAL RESEARCH IN A NORTHERN HARDWOOD FOREST ECOSYSTEM

对新罕布什尔州哈伯德布鲁克实验森林进行的长期生物地球化学和生态学研究的结果将进行汇总、综合和发表。降水和河流水量和化学的定量记录是目前世界上此类生物地球化学记录中最长的、连续的记录，代表了与当前环境问题有关的信息宝库，如酸雨、n沉降和大气CO2水平上升。这一综合将评价北方森林生态区森林流域和相关水生生态系统之间的联系，将探测和评价生态系统结构和功能的变化（如水量和质量），将检验生态系统功能的问题（如氮饱和度），将评价对干扰的反应，如气候变化、商业林业做法、酸雨和主要水文波动（干旱或洪水），并将帮助建立评估变化的基线。对于努力解决重大环境问题的研究人员和决策者来说，这些精心记录和综合的长期数据对于生物地球化学变化的定量视角和推进生态学的理论基础至关重要。如果没有这种长期和景观尺度的数据，探测新英格兰生态系统变化的幅度和方向的能力就很有限。

The results of long-term biogeochemical and ecological research on the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire will be assembled, synthesized and published. The quantitative records of precipitation and streamwater amount and chemistry are now the longest, continuous biogeochemical records of this type in the world, representing a treasure-trove of information relevant to current environmental problems, such as acid rain, N-deposition and rising levels of atmospheric CO2. This synthesis will evaluate the linkages between forested watersheds and associated aquatic ecosystems of the Northern Forest Ecoregion, will detect and evaluate changes in ecosystem structure and function (such as water quantity and quality), will test questions of ecosystem function (such as nitrogen saturation), will evaluate response to disturbance, such as climate change, commercial forestry practices, acid rain, and major hydrologic fluctuation (drought or deluge), and will help establish baselines for evaluating change. For researchers and decision makers grappling with solutions to major environmental issues, such carefully documented and synthesized, long-term data are essential to a quantitative perspective on biogeochemical change and to advance the theoretical underpinnings of ecology. Without such long-term and landscape-scale data, there are only limited abilities to detect the magnitude and direction of ecosystem change in New England.