FSML: Walk-up towers for research, education, communication, and outreach at the Harvard Forest

哈佛大学获得了一笔赠款，将在1600公顷的教育和研究野外站哈佛森林建造两座无电梯天棚塔楼和电车轨道，用于仪器仪表。这些塔将：(1)允许研究人员、教育工作者和学生进入以铁杉和橡树为主的森林的树冠；(2)配备永久性环境传感器阵列；(3)为无线通信网络提供枢纽，将哈佛森林研究数据和设施连接到大学研究人员、K-12教室和任何其他有兴趣了解更多森林生态系统的人；以及(4)建立一个“空中平台”，让哈佛森林的游客可以从头开始了解森林生态学。森林树冠的研究处于生态学研究的前沿，哈佛森林在温带森林树冠的研究中处于领先地位。这两座树冠塔将：为研究和教育创造新的机会；使树冠实验的数据能够实时传输到互联网上；并在现有设施之间建立更紧密的联系，包括：已有25年历史的哈佛森林长期生态研究站点；已有25年历史的生态学夏季研究计划；35公顷的史密森学会全球地球观测站森林动态图；以及国家生态观测网东北区域的核心站点。欲了解更多有关哈佛森林的信息，请访问网站：http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu.

Harvard University has been awarded a grant to construct two walk-up canopy towers and tramways for instrumentation at Harvard Forest, a 1,600-hectare field station for education and research. The towers will: (1) allow researchers, educators, and students to access canopies of hemlock- and oak-dominated forests; (2) be equipped with permanent arrays of environmental sensors; (3) provide a hub for a wireless communications network linking Harvard Forest research data and facilities to university researchers, K-12 classrooms, and anyone else who is interested in learning more about forest ecosystems; and (4) create a "platform-in-the-sky" so visitors to Harvard Forest can learn about forest ecology from the ground up.Research in forest canopies is at the frontier of ecological research, and Harvard Forest is a leader in studies of temperate-forest canopies. These two canopy towers will: create new opportunities for research and education; enable data from canopy-based experiments to be streamed onto the Internet in real time; and forge stronger linkages among existing installations, including: the 25-year-old Harvard Forest Long Term Ecological Research Site; a 25-year-old Summer Research Program in Ecology; a 35-hectare Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory forest dynamics plot; and the core site of the Northeast Domain of the National Ecological Observatory Network. For more information about Harvard Forest, please see the website at http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu.