2008 - Marine Biological Laboratory

Transcription

MBL
Biological Discovery in Woods Hole
The Ecosystems Center Report 2008
Cover photo: Haystacks on the salt marsh in Newbury, Massachusetts. Salt marsh haying has been carried
out since colonial times in the Plum Island Ecosystem. The marsh grasses are cut, then piled on wooden
“staddles” to dry out before being sold. The hay is still valued as mulch for gardens. (Robert Buchsbaum)
The Ecosystems Center
MBL
7 MBL Street
Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
http://www.ecosystems.mbl.edu
Editors: Hugh W. Ducklow and Deborah G. Scanlon
Designer: Beth Ready Liles
The Ecosystems Center was founded in 1975 as a year-round research center of the MBL. Its mission is to
investigate the structure and functioning of ecological systems, predict their response to changing environmental
conditions, apply the resulting knowledge to the preservation and management of natural resources, and educate both
future scientists and concerned citizens.
E
cosystems Center scientists work together
on projects, and collaborate with investigators
from other centers at the MBL and from other
institutions, combining expertise from a wide
range of disciplines. Together, they conduct
research to answer a variety of scientific
questions:
At the Toolik Lake Arctic Long-Term Ecological
Research (LTER) site on Alaska’s North Slope
and at research sites in Greenland and northern
Scandinavia, Ecosystems Center scientists
study the effect of warmer temperatures on
Arctic ecosystems. Will increased permafrost
thaw make more nutrients available to plants?
If these nutrients flow into streams and lakes,
how will they affect the aquatic food web?
At the Plum Island Ecosystems LTER site in
northern Massachusetts, researchers ask how
urban development affects the flow of nutrients
and organic matter into New England estuaries.
How will they alter the food web and plant
growth in salt marshes? What happens to the
production of commercially valuable fish as a
result?
Above: Adrian Rocha and
Gus Shaver set up flux
towers to measure carbon
dioxide, water and energy
exchange on tundra burned
in extensive fires in Alaska.
(Jim Laundre)
Right, top: Ecosystems
Center staff members
construct a hoophouse
to be used to over-winter
trees and sagebrush that
Ecosystems Center senior
scientist Zoe Cardon uses
in her research exploring
interactions between plant
roots and microbes in soils.
(Zoe Cardon)
Background:
The Kuparuk River in
Alaska in January.
(Jonathan Benstead)
In Boston Harbor, researchers measure the
transfer of nitrogen from the sediments to the
water column. How long will it take the harbor
to recover from decades of sewage pollution?
In the Arctic rivers of Eurasia, center scientists
have conducted research that shows increased
freshwater discharge. If ocean circulation is
affected, how might the climate in western
Europe and eastern North America change?
On Martha’s Vineyard, researchers restore
coastal sandplain ecosystems with either
controlled burning or mechanical clearing.
How much will beneficial processes such as
groundwater recharge and nitrogen retention
increase in restored ecosystems? Will it restore
diversity in plant and animal species?
At the Palmer Station LTER in Antarctica,
Ecosystems Center scientists study the coastal
ecosystem along the west Antarctic Peninsula,
where sea ice duration has declined by 80
days in response to climate warming since
1975, leading to large-scale declines in animal
populations and other changes in the marine
ecosystem. Do these changes suggest the fate of
other polar regions on the Antarctic continent?
At the Harvard Forest LTER in central
Massachusetts and at the Abisko Scientific
Research Station in Sweden, scientists use soilwarming experiments to assess how forests
would respond to climate warming. How
much carbon might be released as temperatures
increase? How will warming change the types
of trees in forests of the future? Will changes in
nitrogen cycling affect carbon storage in plants?
In Brazil, scientists investigate how the clearing
of tropical forests in the western Amazon
changes greenhouse gases such as carbon
dioxide and nitrous oxide released into the
atmosphere. What will the effect be on global
climate? How will change in temperature and
atmospheric gas concentrations affect the
productivity of forests? What effect does the
clearing of forest for pasture have on tropical
stream ecosystems?
Scientists in the center use sophisticated
computer models to ask questions about effects
of future changes in climate, carbon dioxide
and ozone on vegetation productivity and
carbon storage world-wide. Center researchers
collaborate with social and atmospheric
scientists at MIT to investigate ecological
responses to various scenarios of economic and
energy development.
E c o s y s t e m s C e n t e r Report 2008 1
Marginal Lands – An Emerging Issue in Global Ecology
L
arge portions of the Earth’s tropical
regions are currently not used intensively
by people. These lands are considered
“marginal lands” for a variety of climatic,
ecological, agronomic, infrastructural
or sociopolitical reasons. They typically
contain savanna, woodlands or seasonally
dry forest where low water availability
and low soil fertility have prevented
development of intensive agriculture. In
some cases, they are inaccessible by modern
transportation or are sites of land conflicts
or other sociopolitical barriers.
Despite the low intensity of use, these lands serve important functions
as producers of food and fuel, reservoirs of biodiversity, places to live
and providers of ecosystem services for millions of people.
2 Ecosystems Center Rep o r t 2 0 0 8
Brown-MBL graduate student
Shelby Hayhoe filters water
for her research comparing
pasture and forest watersheds
in Tanguro Ranch, Mato Grasso,
Brazil. (Chris Neill)
Although considered for hundreds of years
as “marginal land,” increases in human
population and technological advances
place these lands at the new frontier of
intensification, poised to experience the
most rapid land use change on Earth.
These areas represent the promise of food
security, energy security and economic
development. They include most of the
Earth’s potential new land for expansion
of production of grains or biofuels for both
local and global markets. Tropical marginal
lands are the next frontline in the conflict
between supplying increasing goods and
services to a growing human population
and maintaining natural ecosystems and
the services they provide to societies.
Photos below, left to right:
A newly tilled area being converted
from pasture to soybean field in
A field of soybeans, Brazil’s
top export. (Chris Neill)
Headwater watershed impounded
by a small dam, typical of pasture
landscapes in the Amazon.
(Chris Neill)
Intensification of the use of marginal
lands will have a number of negative
consequences. In many cases, the
intensive use of marginal lands will require
increased inputs of nutrients and water
to make them reliably productive. The
nutrient inputs could lead to water and air
pollution, including the eutrophication
of surface waters as excess nitrogen
fertilizer runs off from agricultural fields
and the acceleration of climate change as
nitrogen in the fertilizer is transformed
into nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse
gas. Irrigation of marginal lands will put
new demands on already stressed water
supplies in many regions. In addition, the
replacement of natural ecosystems with
croplands or biofuels plantations could also
have devastating effects on biodiversity and
the capacity of natural terrestrial ecosystems
to deliver many of the support services that
humans rely on.
The Ecosystems Center is in a unique
position to provide science and education
that can guide future management of
marginal lands. Center scientists, in
collaboration with colleagues at Brown
and Columbia Universities and in Latin
America and Africa, are developing a new
interdisciplinary research and education
program on marginal lands that draws
collaborators in the areas of remote
sensing, atmospheric science, watershed
biogeochemistry, social science and
economics and modeling, atmospheric
exchanges, on the ground work in
watershed biogeochemistry and modeling.
This project will transform the intellectual
scope of the research conducted at the
Ecosystems Center by integrating social
and natural science approaches to land
cover change research, increasing student
participation and by providing new insights
and questions that arise from international
experience, perspective and international
exchanges.
Humans rely on
water for basic
survival and economic
development and
today control more
than half of all
accessible water.
Grounding Perceptions of Soil
Sagebrush-dominated
landscape on Bureau of
Land Management grazing
land near the Utah-Idaho
border. (Zoe Cardon)
Image through the
microscope of soil microbes
producing green fluorescent
protein near roots of plants
growing in the lab.
(Patrick Herron)
Soil. For millennia, humans have built with
it, planted seeds in it, and depended on its
resources for the most basic needs of life
including shelter, water and food. Soil has
also been maligned at times, described as
“dirt” when tracked in from the garden, or,
more recently, targeted by “germ”-killing
soaps for those fearful of the millions of
microbes teeming in its depths. But the
microbes in soils are essential for ecosystem
health; they are the natural recyclers of
nutrients and natural decomposers that
have kept ecosystems productive for
millions of years. And, in our world today,
soil microbes are particularly active around
plant roots.
Senior scientist Zoe Cardon of the
Ecosystems Center studies the interface
between living plant roots and soils,
called “the rhizosphere.” The rhizosphere
is a central commodities exchange in
ecosystems, where organic compounds
such as sugars and dead cells lost from roots
fuel microbial decomposers that, in turn,
can make nutrients available to plants for
new growth. This provision of nutrients is
a natural form of fertilization; in fact there
are those who advocate “harnessing the
rhizosphere” to maintain more naturally
agricultural plant productivity while
minimizing use of chemical fertilizers.
Nutrient cycling isn’t the only major
ecosystem function that is strongly
influenced by plant-soil interactions. The
rhizosphere interface between plant roots
and soils is also a portal through which
enormous amounts of water flow.
Of the more than 60 trillion tons of water
that move from soils to the atmosphere each
year, nearly two-thirds passes from soil into
roots, then through the bodies of plants, to
be released by evaporation through miniscule
valves from leaves into the air.
Environmental engineers even exploit such
plant control over soil water flow to redirect
water streams underground or control the
spread of pollutants. For all these reasons,
the health of soils and the organisms living
in them is of great concern worldwide,
whether in areas where soil fertility is in
decline, or areas where water is becoming
scarce.
Scarcity in Arid Lands—How Much Soil Water Can Plants Move?
I
nteractions among carbon, nutrient,
and water cycles have been a continuing
focus throughout the Ecosystems Center’s
history, and new senior scientist Zoe
Cardon continues this tradition with
her research in semi-arid landscapes of
the Western U.S. The productivity of
these systems is strongly limited by the
availability of water and nitrogen, and
Cardon is especially interested in how
dynamics of water availability affect the
productivity of plants and activities of
soil microbes. For the past four years, she
has worked in the field with colleague
John Stark of Utah State University on
grazing lands in Northeastern Utah, just
east of Bear Lake. At an elevation of nearly
7,000 feet, precipitation as snow during
winter months is followed by periods of
drought in late June and July, drought
that is alleviated only once the monsoon
season begins with significant August rains.
Sagebrush shrubs are common in such
Great Basin ecosystems, becoming more
dominant with the increased grazing that
has accompanied human settlement in the
last 150 years.
It was first demonstrated in 1987
that sagebrush can facilitate the
redistribution water from wetter to drier
soil underground. Unseen by our human
eyes, water travels through the sagebrush
roots, via miniscule, open pipes in the
roots’ centers. This water movement
tends to equalize the water content of soil
around the entire sagebrush root system.
Sagebrush can be deeply rooted, reaching
down into the soil column a meter or
more, so deep water can move at night
up through roots and out into drier upper
soil layers. Such dynamic redistribution
of water at night is thought to enable
enhanced plant activity during the
next day.
Water isn’t only moved upward, however.
During late-summer rainstorms, rain that
has soaked upper soil layers can move
rapidly down through the sagebrush root
systems to be released in drier soil deep in
the soil column, thus moving it away from
soil layers where it can readily evaporate
to the atmosphere. This redistribution
of water may be a major controller of
hydrology at the landscape scale in Western
ecosystems where sagebrush is dominant.
Mathematical modeling in a slightly drier
Rush Valley, Utah, landscape has previously
suggested that as much as three-quarters of
the rainwater may be redistributed rapidly
to deep soil via sagebrush roots.
Jed Rasmussen, REU
intern from Utah State
University, examines
microbial activity by injecting tracer compounds
into soil. (Zoe Cardon)
Cardon’s current modeling suggests that
in the Bear Lake area, the proportion of
rainwater redistributed by sagebrush may
not be that large, but it certainly is a major
mechanism by which autumn rain makes
its way downward to recharge water reserves
in the soil column. Water isn’t the only
limitation on plant productivity in such
ecosystems, however. Nitrogen availability
can also be sub-optimal, and Cardon and
Stark are investigating how rates of nutrient
cycling (and associated nutrient delivery
to plants) catalyzed by soil microbes living
among sagebrush roots is affected by rootmediated redistribution of water. In dry
landscapes where ecosystem productivity
and water conservation are contentious
issues, it is particularly important to
understand such major controls over fates
of groundwater and precipitation.
Taking a New Look at Old Growth
A 500-year old growth Douglas fir
forest in Oregon. (Mike Furniss, US
Forest Service)
Ecologists have assumed for decades that old-growth forests, also known as
virgin or primeval forests, are carbon neutral. They were believed to take up as
much carbon by photosynthesis and plant growth as they give back through
plant, animal, and soil respiration. That is, until recent studies—including
those by Ecosystems Center research scientist Jim Tang and his colleagues
—found that old-growth forests serve as important sinks for carbon dioxide
emitted by fossil-fuel burning.
Old-growth forests are valuable as examples of ancient ecosystems and
repositories of biodiversity.
Now Tang’s research adds another dimension to their value: They should be
included in carbon credit schemes designed to lower carbon dioxide emissions,
such as cap-and-trade policies now under consideration by the United States
and other nations. Old-growth forests were not included in national carbon
budgets when negotiators set up the Kyoto Protocol, because they were
believed to play no net role in carbon storage. No international treaties protect
these ancient ecosystems. Tang’s research suggests we take a second look.
Old-Growth Forests Continue Fixing Carbon
I
ncreased carbon dioxide concentration in
the atmosphere is a primary cause of global
climate change. Between 2000 and 2005,
human beings emitted about 7 to 8 billion
metric tons of carbon each year by burning
fossil fuels, leading to an imbalance in the
global carbon cycle. The land and ocean
absorb about 4 to 5 billion tons of this
anthropogenic (human-caused) carbon, but
the atmosphere is gaining 3 billion tons per
year, causing greenhouse warming.
When scientists look more closely at
terrestrial ecosystems, it appears that their
carbon budget is nearly balanced. Plant
respiration, soil respiration, and natural
fire release about 117 billion tons of carbon
each year, while plant photosynthesis
absorbs about 120 billion tons.
These natural carbon fluxes are
huge compared to the fossil-fuels
emissions. The net result is that
terrestrial ecosystems absorb
about 3 billion tons of carbon
each year, acting as a sink for
fossil fuel-derived carbon. Trees
and grass fix carbon into biomass
and soils.
Carbon fluxes are measured from
this 450-meter tower in Wisconsin.
(Jim Tang)
Old-growth forests are nondisturbed forests that have been
growing for hundreds of years.
In the United States, the majority of forests
were harvested in the 19th and early 20th
centuries, so old-growth forests are rare.
Most forests in the United States are postharvest, second-growth forests or humanplanted forests still early in their life cycles.
It was traditionally thought that oldgrowth forests are in a steady state, neither
growing nor shrinking and respiring about
as much carbon as they take up during
photosynthesis. However, Ecosystems
Center scientist Jim Tang and his colleagues
at the University of Minnesota and
Pennsylvania State University found that an
old-growth forest in the upper peninsula of
Michigan was a carbon sink, still growing
and taking up excess carbon over its
respiratory losses.
Jim Tang measures soil respiration in a recently thinned forest.
(Photo courtesy of Jim Tang)
Tang’s group also revealed the underlying
mechanism of carbon balance by studying
a series of forests of increasing ages,
from recently clearcut forests to young
plantation, mature, and old-growth forests.
The classical paradigm to explain the
decrease in carbon uptake in aging forests
is that photosynthetic uptake stabilizes
while respiratory carbon loss increases.
Tang and colleagues found that both
photosynthesis and respiration decrease
in aging forests, after peaking in middle
age. Photosynthesis outpaces respiration in
old-growth forests, resulting in a small net
carbon sink, primarily stored in deep soils.
This result could be explained by increased
atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration
and nitrogen deposition, both of which
favor increased photosynthesis.
These results have significant implications
for forest management and carbon policy.
Cutting mature and old-growth forests
will reduce carbon storage in terrestrial
ecosystems. The loss of carbon stored in
soils and biomass after harvest cannot be
offset by faster growth of young trees for
several decades. To gain carbon credits,
trees should be planted in non-forested
areas, rather than cutting old trees and
planting new ones.
Soybean Agriculture Transforms Amazon Ecosystems
The southern Brazilian Amazon is the largest agricultural frontier on
Earth. Last year, soybeans from the Amazon pushed Brazil past the
United States as the world’s top soybean supplier. Soybeans, sold
mostly to Europe and China, are Brazil’s leading export.
A soybean field in the southern
Brazilian Amazon in the headwater
region of the Xingu River. (Chris Neill)
An international team of scientists, led by Ecosystems Center scientist
Christopher Neill, examines how this radical land transformation
influences the amount and quality of water that makes its way out of
small watersheds and into the vast Amazon drainage network.
Abundant rain is the lifeblood that makes soybean agriculture
possible. Rainwater, cleansed by soils and vegetation in small
watersheds, has fed the main Amazon tributaries for millennia.
But deforestation reduces the amount of water that moves through trees
and back to the atmosphere by evapotranspiration. This means more water
can run off into streams, perhaps causing more erosion and carrying more
sediment and soil nutrients with it.
All of these processes are best studied at the scale of individual
watersheds. Watershed studies have a long and important history
in environmental studies. In the Amazon, they provide a critical,
integrated picture of the consequences of human actions in one of
the most rapidly changing places on Earth. We use them to identify
important “tipping points,” where change passes critical thresholds
that lead to even greater change.
Scientists use seine net to catch fish in an
Amazon pasture stream. (Chris Neill)
Watershed Studies First to Compare Forest and Soybeans
A
fter a 20-minute walk through the humid
air and dappled sunlight of an Amazon
tropical forest, Brown-MBL student Shelby
Hayhoe wades waist deep into a clear stream
and ties a measuring tape to the opposite
bank. Ecosystems Center Senior Research
Assistant Richard McHorney secures the tape
and hands her a current meter to measure the
depth and velocity of the flowing water every
10 centimeters (4 inches) along the tape from
bank to bank.
The stream’s cross section dutifully
recorded, McHorney unwraps a
laptop computer from the safety of
a plastic bag and plugs a cord into
a data logging device tied securely
to a stake at the stream’s edge. With
a few keystrokes, he views the level
of the stream water, recorded every
hour on the hour for the last six
months, and then transfers the data
to his computer.
Hayhoe will use the information
to calculate exactly how much
water flows downstream each year.
Her study subject—a watershed—
is a fundamental unit, long used
by ecologists, to study the basic
hydrological function of ecosystems.
She and McHorney fill three bottles
of water that they will use to
measure sediment, nutrients and
isotopes of oxygen, which provide
information about how much
streamwater arrived via groundwater
or faster overland flows.
Rich McHorney and Shelby
Hayhoe collect data from
a stream in Mato Grasso,
Later that day, they head to another stream.
Only the setting is different. Instead of
walking through forest, they drive 10
kilometers down a series of well-built
roadways that crisscross across a landscape
that has been transformed into neatly planted
soybean fields that stretch nearly from
horizon to horizon. Repeating the process,
McHorney and Hayhoe measure stream depth
and velocity and collect the automatically
logged stream levels.
This work, funded by a grant from the
National Science Foundation to the MBL’s
Ecosystems Center, brings together a team led
by center scientist Christopher Neill that also
includes Alex Krusche, a chemist from the
University of São Paulo in Piracicaba, Helmut
Elsenbeer, a hydrologist from Germany’s
University of Potsdam, and Eric Davidson, a
biogeochemist at the Woods Hole Research
Center.
The project is the first watershed-scale
study of the impact of Amazon soybean
agriculture. It is centered on Tanguro Ranch,
a 200,000-acre farm owned by the agricultural
consortium Grupo A, Maggi. Tanguro lies in
the headwaters of the Xingu River, a major
southern tributary of the Amazon. The large
size of the study area is important—it allows
us to compare whole watersheds in soybean
fields with whole watersheds that remain
forested.
Already, Hayhoe’s results show that the total
volume of water flowing in streams from
soybean watersheds is nearly double that
from forest watersheds. Her oxygen isotope
measurements indicate that despite the
higher flows in soybean streams, almost all
of the streamwater arrives after a long passage
through groundwater.
These measurements are at the heart
of questions vital to the future of the
Amazonian forest and the people who make
their living in the Amazon. First, as more
and more land is cleared, more water will
end up in larger rivers. This increases the
risk of flooding—a phenomenon that may
already be happening. Second, less water
returned to the atmosphere means less
water vapor available to form rain within
the Amazon Basin itself. While we don’t yet
know precisely the amount of clearing that
will trigger larger-scale changes to rainfall,
remote sensing combined with information
from small watersheds will be essential for
developing models that can predict these
critical thresholds.
Education
SES students and instructors in the field and in the lab. (Tom Kleindinst)
Semester in Environmental Science
The Semester in Environmental Science (SES) at the MBL is currently the only academic year educational program available for undergraduates at a research institution
in Woods Hole. Over the past 12 years, 180 students have completed the program
and about half have gone on to receive graduate training in environmental science,
policy or engineering. Nearly 70 percent of SES alumni remain involved in fields
related to environmental science and management.
In 2008, 14 students were admitted to the SES program from a variety of schools
including Bates College, Connecticut College, Colorado College, Dillard University,
Franklin and Marshall College, Lawrence University, Lafayette College, Mount
Holyoke College, Northwestern University, SUNY-Environmental Science and Forestry
School, and Wesleyan University. Although they were enrolled in U.S. colleges, this
was an international group including students from Tanzania, China, Nepal, and Trinidad. To help assure a diverse student population and provide all students with equal
access to the program, $84,059 in financial assistance was offered in 2008, a significantly larger amount than in prior years. This scholarship aid was derived from three
major sources: a grant provided by the A.W. Mellon Foundation to support underrepresented groups in environmental science, gifts totaling $19,500 from individual
donors, and endowment income from the Osterhout/Sears and Speck funds dedicated
for undergraduate support.
Wayne Daniel of Dillard University
filters phytoplankton in the SES lab.
(Ken Foreman)
During the first 10 weeks of the program, students completed a set of structured
lab and field exercises as part of the core courses and visited a variety of freshwater,
estuarine and terrestrial sites. At each field site, they measured ecosystem structure
(e.g., species composition and biomass of plants, animals and microbes present, light,
salinity, soil characteristics, etc.) and function (e.g., photosynthesis, respiration, nutrient cycling and release). Students reported on their findings at weekly or bi-weekly
discussion sessions and prepared written lab reports. Students also completed an elective course (in 2008, either mathematical modeling of ecosystems or microbial methods in ecology). During the last six weeks of the program, after the formal coursework
ended, students pursued independent research projects and presented their findings at
a public symposium held in December. Results from this work are submitted as final
written project reports and are posted to our website, http://courses.mbl.edu/SES/.
For more information about the SES program, please go to the website, http://courses.mbl.edu/SES/.
10 Ecosystems Center R e p o r t 2 0 0 8
One SES Student’s Story
by Jennifer Peters
A
fter graduating from Bard College with a degree in
ecological biology, I began searching for a “real job.”
I’d had some broad experience working for the New
York Department of Environmental Conservation on
the Hudson River taking water quality measurements.
But, like most recent college graduates, my resumé
didn’t include a lot of professional science experience.
I’d done a senior thesis on eastern coyotes, spent a
January intersession in Kenya studying snakes, and
during my junior year in SES, I completed a project
on water and carbon budgets on Martha’s Vineyard.
I managed to find some interesting temporary field
assistant jobs working on a tree census in Puerto Rico
and tagging sage grouse in Colorado, but I always
hoped to return to the Ecosystems Center.
When I was a student in SES, faculty member and
Ecosystems Center senior scientist Gus Shaver gave
a fascinating lecture on species composition shifts
in the Arctic tundra in response to climate change.
I remember Gus’s enthusiasm as he told us the
complex tale of feedbacks that might occur if global
warming stimulated nutrient release from frozen
tundra soils. Ever since that lecture, I’d hoped to
have a chance to do research first-hand on the North
Slope of Alaska. Then I saw a posting for a summer
research assistantship working with Gus. I got the
job and spent last summer working at Toolik Lake
field station! Even more exciting, I was hired as a full
time employee at the Ecosystems Center to continue
work on the Toolik Lake research site, and to be the
teaching assistant in the Fall SES Program in 2008.
So, two and a half years after finishing at SES, I found
myself ankle-deep in soggy tussock tundra, fertilizing
the plots Gus had talked about and building the
greenhouses I had seen in pictures. The field station
is about 140 miles north of the Arctic Circle. You
can walk for miles across the rolling hills of tundra,
with wet feet, tripping over tussocks, and still see
camp. Not a particularly elegant sight, camp was a
conglomeration of Army fatigue green trailers and
tents sitting next to a gravel access road running
parallel to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
My job was to help out on many of the different
research projects that worked out of the terrestrial
lab. For this I relied very heavily on my SES lab
experience. I utilized many of the techniques we
covered during the core SES courses. I used an infrared
gas analyzer to measure ecosystem photosynthesis,
measured leaf area, and used buried bags to estimate
nitrogen mineralization in the soil. I even used the
wet chemistry we learned in SES to measure phosphate
and nitrate in soil extracts, and determined carbon and
nitrogen content of leaf samples using an elemental
analyzer.
My main responsibility during the summer was
measuring light reflectance from the tundra,
essentially the greenness, of vegetation across a
fertilization gradient. We will use this data to scale up
measurements of biomass based on remote sensing data
and learn something about areas that are even more
inaccessible than Toolik, such as the 1000 km2 area
burned during the Anakturak River fire.
During 2007, unusually dry and warm conditions and
an increased incidence of lightning strikes that may
be occurring due to climate change triggered a major
fire on the tundra. The fire blackened the surface and
exposed the frozen soil, leading to further thawing
during the summer of 2008. This was the first major fire
recorded in the North Slope over the last 10,000 years
and it is estimated that it released more than 2 million
metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, burning off the
top 12 cm of moss. One of the most exciting datasets I
collected while at Toolik was the change in reflectance
and thaw depth recorded from the burned areas over
the summer as the landscape began to re-vegetate.
Gus’s lecture during SES convinced me that Arctic
ecosystems are some of the most fascinating places on
Earth to study—first, because their function is not as
well understood as ecosystems in temperate or tropical
climates, and second, because they are experiencing
extreme warming. It turns out that about 1,000 billion
metric tons of carbon, an amount greater than the pool
of CO2 in the atmosphere, is thought to be tied up in
permafrost soils. The question of what will happen to
this carbon as the Arctic warms is really important!
Education and Outreach
Science journalists collect
invertebrates from a stream
at the Long Term Ecological
Research (LTER) site, Toolik
Lake, Alaska. (Chris Neill)
T
he Ecosystems Center is actively involved in education in a variety of ways.
In addition to running the Semester in Environmental Science program for college
undergraduates, center scientists are professors and advisors in the Brown-MBL Graduate
Program, members of doctoral committees and mentors for postdoctoral scientists and
undergraduate interns. The center staff also takes part in a range of community outreach
activities to increase public understanding of science.
Schoolyard Long-Term Ecological Research Projects
The Arctic Schoolyard LTER is based at Barrow, Alaska, and designed for students, mostly
Native American Inupiat, their teachers and local residents. It consists of “Schoolyard
Saturday,” a weekly series of lectures and field demonstrations by visiting scientists, and
two field activities for Barrow students and teachers. One field experiment measures the
effects of climate warming on tundra vegetation; the second experiment
measures changes in lake water chemistry.
The Plum Island Ecosystem (PIE) Schoolyard LTER conducts a project
with the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Salt Marsh Science Program, a
program providing environmental education to more than 700 middle and
high school students in the coastal region of northeastern Massachusetts.
These activities engage them in salt marsh research near their homes and
include monitoring the growth of Phragmites in salt marshes, studying the
effect of salinity on the growth of salt marsh vegetation and determining
the impact of tidal restrictions on fish. Through an additional educational
effort, led by Governer’s Academy in Rowley, school students study the
distribution of plants and animals at PIE field sites and maintain a longterm database.
Barrow, Alaska, students
at an experimental
station on the tundra,
part of the Arctic
Schoolyard LTER.
(Deborah Greene)
The Palmer Station Schoolyard LTER collaborates with a number of educational
organizations to create interdisciplinary projects that are based on research by Palmer
scientists, and maintains a blog site reporting the progress of its annual oceanographic
cruise.
Undergraduate Internships
With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other groups, the
Ecosystems Center has offered many college students the opportunity to undertake
research projects in the lab and at field sites. In 2008, nine undergraduates from the
University of Massachusetts - Lowell, Clark University, the University of Michigan,
Western Washington University, the University of North Carolina, the University of
California, San Diego and the College of William and Mary conducted research projects
through NSF’s Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) program. Their projects
ranged from studying the effects of fire on the organic and inorganic chemistry of tussock
tundra soil water in Alaska, to research on the effects of herbivory in a nitrogen-enriched
salt marsh at the Plum Island LTER in northeastern Massachusetts, to bacterial ecology
research at the Palmer LTER site in Antarctica.
Brown-MBL Graduate Program
A children’s book, Sea Secrets:
Tiny Clues to a Big Mystery, was
inspired in part by research at the
Palmer Station LTER in Antarctica.
(Beth Simmons)
Five students are working under the
supervision of Ecosystems Center scientists
in the MBL’s graduate program with Brown
University. Gillian Galford is studying regional
and global consequences of the expansion
of mechanized agriculture in the Brazilian
Amazon with Jerry Melillo of the Ecosystems
Center and Jack Mustard of Brown. Shelby
Hayhoe is looking at the effect of land
use change on biogeochemical cycling in
tropical systems, focusing on agricultural
conversion in the Amazon. Her advisors are
Christopher Neill of the Ecosystems Center
and Stephen Porder from Brown. Kristen
Myers is conducting her research on bacterial
community structure in coastal Antarctica
with Hugh Ducklow of the Ecosystems Center
and Jeremy Rich of Brown. Yawei Luo’s
research with Ducklow and Warren Prell of
Brown uses numerical simulation models
to study plankton dynamics and nutrient
cycling with emphasis on the open ocean.
Lindsay Brin is examining how temperature
influences nitrogen pathways in estuaries and
mangroves. Her advisors are Anne Giblin from
the Ecosystems Center and Jeremy Rich from
Brown University.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Youth Programs
and is sponsored by the National Science
Foundation. According to its director,
Ari Epstein of the MIT, the program was
designed to “interest, inspire and excite”
the teenage generation with interesting
stories produced by their peers on science,
technology, engineering and mathematics.
Logan Science Journalism Program
Environmental Fellows from MIT visited
the Ecosystems Center for their annual
retreat to hear presentations by the
center’s Plum Island, Arctic, and Antarctic
LTER researchers, and to network among
graduate students and scientists pursuing
environmental, energy and sustainability
research topics.
In 2008, 10 journalists, led by Christopher
Neill, participated in the MBL’s Logan
Science Journalism Program’s Polar Science
Fellowship, created for the International
Polar Year. They traveled to the LTER site at
Toolik Lake, Alaska. A number
of interviews, articles and blogs
resulted from their two-week stay
at Toolik. Three polar fellows
and Neill will also spend a
month next Austral summer at
Palmer Station on the Antarctic
Peninsula.
Members of the Ecosystems Center staff
continue to judge community and state
science fairs for students in kindergarten
through grade 12 and mentor junior high
school students. The center also continued
its participation in the Woods Hole Science
and Technology Education Partnership
(WHSTEP), providing assistance to teachers
and students in the local school systems.
Senior research assistant Matthew Erickson
gave an overview of Palmer LTER to teachers
from Upper Cape Cod schools at WHSTEP’s
annual dinner and meeting in 2008.
Science Outreach
Matthew Erickson describes research
at the Palmer Station LTER site in
Antarctica to science teachers from
Cape Cod schools. (Debbie Scanlon)
Rachel Franzblau, REU intern from the University of Michigan,
analyzes organic compounds from sediment traps in Maureen
Conte’s Oceanic Flux Program. (J.C. Weber)
In August, a group of urban
high school students from
Terrascope Youth Radio produced
“Science Minutes,” interviewing
Ecosystems Center senior scientists Anne
Giblin and Zoe Cardon and other Woods
Hole scientists. Terrascope Youth Radio is
a partnership project of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) and the City of
Ecosystems Center staff members serve
on many town committees, including the
Falmouth Zoning Board and Falmouth
Conservation Commission, Falmouth
Associations Concerned with Estuaries
and Salt Ponds, the Association to Preserve
Cape Cod, the Falmouth Coastal Resources
working group, the Nutrient Management
working group and the Falmouth Ashumet
Plume Nitrogen-Offset Committee and the
Falmouth Solid Waste Advisory committee.
News
Jerry Melillo and Brown-MBL
graduate student Gillian
Galford attended a fourday workshop in Segou,
Mali, in July. Thirty scientists
took part in the U.S.-Africa
Workshop: Building research
collaborations on nitrogen
cycling in African AgroEcosystems, associated with
the Millenium Villages Project.
Gillian Galford (Leigh Winowiecki)
An update on global warming, Global
Climate Change: Its Impacts in the United
States was co-edited by Jerry Melillo with
Thomas Karl and Thomas Peterson from
NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center
in Asheville, North Carolina. The report,
to be released in spring of 2009, was
commissioned by the U. S. Government’s
Climate Change Science Program to
summarize what is known about the science
of climate change and its impacts on the
United States.
John Hobbie was named a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
one of the nation’s most prestigious
honorary societies. Hobbie, a senior
scholar at the Ecosystems Center and lead
principal investigator of the Arctic Long
Term Ecological Research (LTER) project,
also received the Redfield Award from
the American Society of Limnology and
Oceanography (ASLO). Bruce Peterson
was the recipient of ASLO’s Martin Award.
Joe Vallino was in Antarctica at McMurdo
Station in January as a member of the LTER
Site Review team for the McMurdo Dry
Valley LTER project.
Ivan Valiela is a member of the
Ecosystems Sciences and Management
working group of the NOAA’s Science
Advisory Board, and is editor of Estuarine,
Coastal and Shelf Science.
Zoe Cardon has been elected the new
president of the Physiological Ecology
Section of Ecological Society of America
(ESA). She is the first female president of
that research group. Jim Tang chaired the
session, “Ecosystem Function: NPP,” for
the ESA annual meeting in Milwaukee in
August.
MBL Visiting Scientist James Galloway,
(University of Virginia) was the recipient
of the 2008 Tyler Prize for Environmental
Achievement, the premier award for
environmental science, energy, and
In the fall, Gus Shaver began a sabbatical
environmental health, and considered
in Fairbanks, Alaska, building collaborations the equivalvent of a Nobel Prize in those
with other scientists from Toolik Field
fields. Galloway works each summer
Station of the Arctic LTER and with the
with Ecosystems Center scientists and in
Bonanza Creek LTER in Fairbanks. On an
2008 also spent his sabbatical here from
international level, he serves on the steering September to December.
committee of the International Study of
Arctic Change (ISAC).
Dan Arvizu, Director of the National Research Ecology
Laboratory and NSF Science Board member, and Gus Shaver
at the Long Term Ecological Research site at Toolik Lake,
Alaska. Members of the Science Board visited the Toolik site
in August. (John Hobbie)
Maureen Conte led a French/US
expedition in October to a remote
lake in French Guiana to collect
sediment cores for a reconstruction
of Holocene climate variability in
the northeastern Amazon.
Linda Deegan was a featured
lecturer at the 20th anniversary of
the founding of the Waquoit Bay
National Estuarine Research Reserve.
Ed Rastetter spent a month in
Edinburgh, Scotland, working
with Mathew Williams on data
assimilation techniques for carbon
flux data derived from eddy
covariance towers.
Paul Colinvaux wrote a book
on his 40 years of research in
the Amazon, Amazon Exhibitions:
My Quest for the Ice-Age Equator,
published by Yale University Press.
Chris Neill was elected president
of FACES (Falmouth Associations
Concerned with Estuaries and Salt
Ponds).
Ed Rastetter in an old growth Caledonian Forest in the Southern
Highlands, near Pitlochry, Scotland. (Philip Wookey)
Anne Giblin was appointed
to the board of directors of the
Gulf of Maine Institute, a nonprofit organization whose mission
is to inspire young people, in
partnership with adults, to become
stewards of the Gulf of Maine and
its watershed. Giblin also assumed
leadership of the Plum Island LTER
project in 2008.
As part of the International Polar
Year, Hugh Ducklow spent
July, August and September at the
Palmer field station in Antarctica
in the Austral winter studying
bacterioplankton community
structure. At the Ecosystems
Center, he was host to Xosé (Xelu)
Morán of the Instituto Español
de Oceanografía, Xixon, Spain.
Morán conducted research on
bacterioplankton population
dynamics in Waquoit Bay.
Toolik Field Station on the North Slope of Alaska. (John Hobbie)
LTER site at Palmer Station in Antarctica, as seen from Torgeson Island. (Hugh Ducklow)
Publications 2008
Bowden, WB; Gooseff, MN; Balser, A; Green, A;
Peterson, BJ; Bradford, J. 2008. Sediment and
nutrient delivery from thermokarst features in
the foothills of the North Slope, Alaska: Potential
impacts on headwater stream ecosystems.
Journal of Geophysical Research 113 G02026,
DOI:10.1029/2007JG000470.
Bradford, MA; Davies, CA; Frey, SD; Maddox, TR;
Melillo, JM; Mohan, JE; Reynolds, JF; Treseder,
KK; Wallenstein, MD. 2008. Thermal adaptation
of soil microbial respiration to elevated
temperature. Ecology Letters 11(12):1316-1327.
Bowen, JL; Valiela, I. 2008. Using delta15N
to assess coupling between watersheds and
estuaries in temperate and tropical regions.
Journal of Coastal Research 24(3):804-813.
Bret-Harte, MS; Mack, MC; Goldsmith, GR;
Sloan, DB; DeMarco, J; Shaver, G; Ray, PM;
Biesinger, Z; Chapin FS III. 2008. Plant functional
types do not predict biomass responses to
removal and fertilization in Alaskan tussock
tundra. Journal of Ecology DOI:10.1111/j.
1365-2745.2008.01378.
Buchsbaum, RN; Deegan, LA; Horowitz, J;
Garritt, RH; Giblin, AE; Ludlam, JP; Shull, D.
2008. Effects of regular salt marsh haying on
marsh plants, algae, invertebrates and birds at
Plum Island Sound, Massachusetts. Wetland
Ecology and Management DOI:10.1007/s11273008-9125-3.
Burton, AJ; Melillo, JM; Frey, SD. 2008.
Adjustment of forest ecosystem root respiration
as temperature warms. Journal of Integrative
Plant Biology 50(11):1467-1483.
Cardon, ZG; Gray, DW; Lewis, LA. 2008. The
green algal underground – evolutionary secrets
of desert cells. BioScience 58(2):114-122.
Colinvaux, P. 2008. Amazon Expeditions: My
Quest for the Ice-Age Equator. Yale University
Press, New Haven and London. 328 pp.
Ducklow, H. 2008. Microbial services: Challenges
for microbial ecologists in a changing world.
Aquatic Microbial Ecology 53:13-19.
Cooper, L.W; McClelland, JW; Holmes, RM;
Raymond, PA; Gibson, JJ; Guay,CK; Peterson, BJ.
2008. Flow-weighted values of runoff tracers
(18O, DOC, Ba, alkalinity) from the six largest
Arctic rivers. Geophysical Research Letters 35
L18606, DOI:10.1029/2008GL035007.
Ducklow, HW; Erickson, M; Kelly, J; Montes-Hugo,
M; Ribic, CA; Smith, RC; Stammerjohn, SE; Karl,
DM. 2008. Particle export from the upper ocean
over the continental shelf of the west Antarctic
Peninsula: A long-term record, 1992-2007. DeepSea Research II 55:2118-2131.
Corell, RW; Hassol SJ; Melillo, JM. 2008.
Emerging challenges: Methane from the Arctic:
Global warming wildcard. Pp. 37-48 in: P
Harrison, ed. UNEP Yearbook 2008. An Overview
of Our Changing Environment. Division of
Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA), United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
Nairobi, Kenya.
Ducklow, HW. 2008. Long-term studies of the
marine ecosystem along the west Antarctic
Peninsula. Deep-Sea Research II 55:1945-1948.
Culbertson, JB; Valiela, I; Olsen, YS; Reddy, CM.
2008. Effect of field exposure to 38-year-old
residual petroleum hydrocarbons on growth,
condition index, and filtration rate of the ribbed
mussel, Geukensia demissa. Environmental
Pollution 154:312-319.
Culbertson, JB; Valiela, I; Pickart, M; Peacock,
EE; Reddy, CM. 2008. Long-term consequences
of residual petroleum on salt marsh grass.
Journal of Applied Ecology DOI:10.1111
/j.1365-2664.2008.01477.
Davidson, EA; Asner, GP; Stone, TA; Neill, C;
Figueiredo, RO. 2008. Objective indicators of
pasture degradation from spectral mixture
analysis of Landsat imagery. Journal of
Geophysical Research G: Biogeosciences 113:
Art. No. G00B03 10.1029/2007JG000622.
Carmichael, RH; Hattenrath, T; Valiela, I;
Michener, RH. 2008. Nitrogen stable isotopes
in the shell of Mercenaria mercenaria trace
wastewater inputs from watershed to estuarine
ecosystems. Aquatic Biology 4:99-111.
Desai, AR; Noormets, AN; Bolstad, PV; Chen, J;
Cook, BD; Curtis, PV; Davis, KJ; Euskirchen, ES;
Gough, C; Martin, JM; Ricciuto, DM; Schmid,
HP; Su, H; Tang, J; Vogel, C; Wang, W. 2008.
Influence of vegetation type, stand age and
climate on carbon dioxide fluxes across the
Upper Midwest, USA: Implications for regional
scaling of carbon flux. Agricultural and Forest
Meteorology 148:288-308.
Chaves, J; Neill, C; Elsenbeer, H; Krusche,
A; Germer, S; Gouveia Neto, S. 2008. Land
management impacts on runoff sources in small
Amazon watersheds. Hydrological Processes
22:1766-1775.
Drake, DC; Peterson, BJ; Deegan, LA; Harris,
LA; Miller, EE; Warren, RS. 2008. Plant nitrogen
dynamics in fertilized and natural New England
saltmarshes: A paired 15N tracer study. Marine
Ecology Progress Series 354:35-46.
Ducklow, HW; Doney, SC; Steinberg, DK. 2008.
Contributions of long-term research and timeseries observations to marine ecology and
biogeochemistry. Annual Review of Marine
Science 1:279-302.
Ewers, BE; Mackay, DS; Tang, J; Bolstad, P;
Samanta, S. 2008. Intercomparison of sugar
maple stand transpiration responses to
environmental conditions from the western Great
Lakes Region of the United States. Agricultural
and Forest Meteorology 148:231-246.
Fleeger, JW; Johnson, DS; Galvan, KA; Deegan,
LA. 2008. Top-down and bottom-up control of
infauna varies across the salt marsh landscape.
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and
Ecology 357:20-34.
Fox, SE; Stieve, E; Valiela, I; Hauxwell, J;
McClelland, J. 2008. Macrophyte abundance in
Waquoit Bay: Effects of land-derived nitrogen
loads on seasonal and multi-year biomass
patterns. Estuaries and Coasts 31(3):532-541,
10.1007/s12237-008-9039-6.
Frey, SD; Drijber, R; Smith, H; Melillo, J. 2008.
Microbial biomass, functional capacity, and
community structure after 12 years of soil
warming. Soil Biology and Biochemistry
40(11):2904-2907, DOI:10.1016/j.
soilbio.2008.07.020.
Frumhoff, PC; McCarthy, JJ; Melillo, JM; Moser,
SC; Wuebbles, DJ; Wake, C; Spanger-Siegfried, E.
2008. An integrated climate change assessment
for the Northeast United States. Mitigation and
Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 13:
419-423.
Caption
Fry, B; Cieri, M; Hughes, J; Tobias, C; Deegan, L;
Peterson, B. 2008. Stable isotope monitoring of
benthic-planktonic coupling using salt marsh fish.
Marine Ecology Progress Series 369:193-204.
Gage, DJ; Herron, PH; Pinedo, CA; Cardon,
ZG. 2008. Live reports from the soil grain – the
promise and challenge of microbiosensors.
Functional Ecology 22:983-989.
Galford, GL; Mustard, JF; Melillo, JM; Gendrin,
A; Cerri CC; Cerri, CEP. 2008. Wavelet analysis
of MODIS time series to detect expansion and
intensification of row-crop agriculture in Brazil.
Remote Sensing of Environment 112(2):576-587.
Gasol, JM; Pinhassi, J; Alonso-Sáez, L; Ducklow,
H; Herndl, GJ; Koblížek, M; Labrenz, M; Luo,
Y; Morán, XAG; Reinthaler, T; Simon, M. 2008.
Towards a better understanding of microbial
carbon flux in the sea. Aquatic Microbial Ecology
53:21-38.
Geisz, HN; Dickhut, RM; Cochran, MA; Fraser WR;
Ducklow, HW. 2008. Melting glaciers: A probable
source of DDT to the Antarctic marine ecosystem.
Environmental Science and Technology 10.1021/
es702919n.
Haas, HL; Freeman, CJ; Logan, JM; Deegan, LA;
Gaines, EF. 2008. Examining mummichog growth
and movement: Are some individuals making
intra-season migrations to optimize growth?
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and
Ecology DOI:10.1016/j.jembe.2008.09.027.
Hobbie, EA; Hobbie, JE. 2008. Natural abundance
of 15N in nitrogen-limited forests and trundra can
estimate nitrogen cycling through mycorrhizal
fungi: A review. Ecosystems 11:815-830.
Hobbie, JE; Laybourn-Parry, J. 2008. Heterotrophic
microbial processes in polar lakes. Pp. 197-212
in Polar Lakes and Rivers: Limnology of Arctic
and Antarctic Aquatic Ecosystems. WF Vincent,
J Laybourn-Parry, eds. Oxford University Press,
Oxford.
Holmes, RM; McClelland, JW; Raymond, PA;
Frazer, BB; Peterson, BJ; Stieglitz, M. 2008. Lability
of DOC transported by Alaskan rivers to the Arctic
Ocean. Geophysical Research Letters 35(3): Art.
No. L03402, 10.1029/2007GL032837.
Hopkinson, CS; Giblin, AE. 2008. Salt marsh
nitrogen cycling. Pp. 977-1022 in Nitrogen in
the Marine Environment. R Capone, D Bronk, M
Mulholland, E Carpenter, eds. Elsevier Publishers.
Huang, S; Conte, M. 2008. Source/process
apportionment of major and trace elements in
sinking particles in the Sargasso Sea. Geochimica
et Cosmochimica Acta 10.1016/j.gca.2008.08.023
Knapp, AK; Briggs; JM; Collins, SL; Archer, SR;
Bret-Harte, MS; Ewers, BE; Peters, DP; Young, DR;
Shaver, GR; Pendall, E; Cleary, MB. 2008. Shrub
encroachment in North American grasslands: Shift
in growth form dominance rapidly alters control
of ecosystem C inputs. Global Change Biology
14(3):615-623.
Lambers, H; Raven, JA; Shaver, G; Smith, SE.
2008. Specialised nutrient-acquisition strategies
reflect plant adaptations to changing N and P
status as soils change over geological time scales.
Trends in Ecology and Evolution 23(2):95-103.
McClintock, J; Ducklow, H; Fraser, W. 2008.
Ecological responses to climate change on the
Antarctic Peninsula. American Scientist 96:
302-310.
McKnight, DM; Gooseff, MN; Vincent, WF;
Peterson, BJ. 2008. High-latitude rivers and
streams. Pp 83-102 in Polar Lakes and Rivers:
Limnology of Arctic and Antarctic Aquatic
Ecosystems. WF Vincent, J Laybourn-Parry, eds.
Oxford University Press, Oxford.
McNamara, J; Kane, D; Hobbie, J; Kling, G. 2008.
Hydrologic and biogeochemical controls on the
spatial and temporal patterns of nitrogen and
phosphorus in the Kuparuk River, arctic Alaska.
Hydrological Processes DOI:10.1002/hyp.6920.
Melillo, J; Sala, O. 2008. Ecosystem services. Pp.
75-115 in E Chivian, A Bernstein, eds. Sustaining
Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity.
Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
Morán, XAG; Calvo-Díaz, A. 2008. Single-cell vs.
bulk activity properties of coastal bacterioplankton
over an annual cycle in a temperate ecosystem.
FEMS Microbial Ecology 1–14.
Mulholland, PJ; Helton, AM; Poole, GC; Hall, RO
Jr.; Hamilton, SK; Peterson, BJ; Tank, JL; Ashkenas,
LR; Cooper, LW; Dahm, CN; Dodds, WK; Findlay,
SEG; Gregory, SV; Grimm, NB; Johnson, SL;
McDowell, WH; Meyer, JL; Valett, HM; Webster,
JR; Arango, CP; Beaulieu, JJ; Bernot, MJ; Burgin,
AJ; Crenshaw, CL; Johnson, LT; Niederlehner, BR;
O’Brien, JM; Potter, JD; Sheibley, RW; Sobota, DJ;
Thomas, SM. 2008. Stream denitrification across
biomes and its response to anthropogenic nitrate
loading. Nature 452:202-205.
Nowinski, N; Trumbore, SE; Schuur, E; Mack, M;
Shaver, G. 2008. Nutrient addition prompts rapid
destabilization of organic matter in an Arctic
tundra ecosystem. Ecosystems 11:16-25.
Robertson, GP; Dale, VH; Doering, OC; Hamburg,
SP; Melillo, JM; Wander, MM; Parton, WJ; Adler,
PR; Barney, JN; Cruse, RM; Duke, CS; Fearnside,
PM; Follett, RF; Gibbs, HK; Goldemberg, J;
Mladenoff, DJ; Ojima, D; Palmer, MW; Sharpley,
A; Wallace, L; Weathers, KC; Wiens, JA; Wilhelm,
WW. 2008. Sustainable biofuels redux. Science
322(5898):49-50, 10.1126/science.1161525.
San Gil, I; Sheldon, W; Schmidt, T; Servilla, M;
Aguilar, R; Gries, C; Gray, T; Field, D; Cole, J;
Pan, J; Palanisamy, G; Henshaw, D; O’Brien, M;
Kinkel, L; McMahon, K; Kottmann, R; AmaralZettler, L; Hobbie, J; Goldstein, P; Guralnick, RP;
Brunt, J; Michener, WK. 2008. Defining linkages
between the GSC and NSF’s LTER Program: How
the ecological metadata language (EML) relates to
GCDML and other outcomes. OMICS: A Journal of
Integrative Biology 12(2):151-156, DOI:10.1089/
omi.2008.0015.
Sokolov, AP; Kicklighter, DW; Melillo, JM;
Felzer, B; Schlosser, CA; Cronin, TW. 2008.
Consequences of considering carbon/
nitrogen interactions on the feedbacks
between climate and the terrestrial carbon
cycle. Journal of Climate 21:3776-2796,
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Tang, J; Bolstad, PV; Desai,AR; Martin, JG;
Cook, BD; Davis, KJ; Carey, EV. 2008. Ecosystem
respiration and its components in an old-growth
forest in the Great Lakes region of the United
States. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
148:171-185.
Teichberg, M; Fox, SE; Aguila, C; Olsen, YS;
Valiela, I. 2008. Macroalgal responses to
experimental nutrient enrichment in shallow
coastal waters: growth, internal nutrient pools,
and isotopic signatures. Marine Ecology Progress
Series 368:117-126.
Tian, H; Liu, J; Melillo, JM; Liu, M; Kicklighter,
D; Yan X; Pan, S. 2008. The Terrestrial Carbon
Budget in East Asia: Human and Natural
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Valiela, I; Fox, SE. 2008. Managing coastal
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Vincent, WF; Hobbie, JE; Laybourn-Parry, J.
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Wan, Z, Vallino, JJ; Peterson, BJ. 2008. Study
of the inter-annual food web dynamics in the
Kuparuk River with a first order approximation
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Wollheim, W.M., Peterson, BJ; Thomas,
SM; Hopkinson, CH; Vörösmarty, CJ. 2008.
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of Geophysical Research 113:G03038,
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Zimmermann, A; Germer, S; Neill. C; Krusche,
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of Hydrology 360:87-102, DOI:10.1016/j.
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trophic structure
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Kate Morkeski samples Fish Brook in Boxford,
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Giblin, AE; Jacinthe,
P; Mayorga, E;
Seitzinger, S; Sobota,
D; Wollheim, W.
The regional and
global significance of
nitrogen removal in
lakes and reservoirs.
Biogeochemistry.
Deegan, LA; Neill,
C; Victoria, RL;
Krusche, AV; Ballester,
MVR; Thomas, SM;
Haupert, CL. Using
Ballester, MVR; Victoria, whole stream 15N
RL; Krusche, AV;
additions to streams to
Bernardes, M; Neill, C;
understand the effects
Deegan, L; Richey, JE.
of land use change
Physical and human
on stream function.
controls on the carbon Application of isotope
composition of organic techniques for water
matter in tropical
quality assessment
rivers: an integrated
and management,
analysis of landscape
focusing on nutrient
properties and river
management in rivers.
isotopic composition.
International Atomic
Application of isotope
Energy Agency, Vienna,
techniques for water
Austria.
quality assessment
and management,
Fennel, K; Brady, D;
focusing on nutrient
DiToro, D; Fulweiler,
management in rivers.
RW; Gardner, WS;
International Atomic
Giblin, A; McCarthy,
Energy Agency, Vienna, MJ; Rao, A.; Seitzinger,
Austria.
S; Thouvenot-Korppoo,
M; Tobias, C. Modeling
Bowen, JL; Crump, BC; denitrification in
Deegan, LA; Hobbie,
aquatic sediments.
JE. Increased supply
Biogeochemistry.
of ambient nitrogen
has minimal effect on
Fry, B; Cieri, M;
salt marsh bacterial
Hughes, J; Tobias, C;
production. Limnology
Deegan, LA; Peterson,
and Oceanography.
B. Stable Isotope
monitoring of benthicCerri, CEP; Bernoux, M; pelagic coupling with
Chaplot, V; Volkoff, B;
salt marsh fish. Marine
Vicotira, RL; Melillo, JM; Ecology Progress
Paustian, K; Cerri, CC.
Series.
Nova Vida agronomic
experiment: 1> Taking
Germer, S; Neill, C;
into account the
Vetter, T; Chaves, J;
spatial variability of soil Krusche, AV; Elsenbeer,
properties for selecting H. Implications of longthe experimental area.
term land-use change
Plant and Soil.
on the hydrology
and solute budgets
Claessens, L; Rastetter, of small catchments
E; Hopkinson, C;
in Rondônia (Brazil).
Vallino, J; Canfield, S;
Journal of Hydrology.
Pontius, R. Evaluating
the effect of historical
changes in land use
Hobbie, JE; Hobbie, EA;
Weber, JC; Shamhar, J;
Drossman, H; Conte,
M. Mycorrhizal fungi
supply nitrogen to host
plants in arctic tundra
and boreal forests:
15
N is the key signal.
Canadian Journal of
Microbiology.
Johnson, DS; Fleeger,
JW; Deegan, LA. Largescale manipulations
reveal top-down and
bottom-up controls
interact to alter habitat
utilization by saltmarsh
fauna. Marine Ecology
Progress Series.
Kniffin, M; Neill,
C; McHorney, RM;
Gregory, G. Nutrient
limitation of periphyton
and phytoplankton in
Cape Cod coastal plain
ponds. Northeastern
Naturalist.
Koop-Jakobsen, K;
Giblin, AE. Anammox
in tidal marsh
sediments: The role
of salinity, nitrogen
loading and marsh
vegetation. Estuaries
and Coasts.
Neill, C; Bezerra, MO;
McHorney, R; O’Dea,
CB. Distribution,
species composition
and management
implications of seed
banks in southern
New England coastal
plain ponds. Biological
Conservation.
Tian, H; Liu, J; Melillo,
JM; Liu, M; Kicklighter,
D; Yan, X; Pan, S.
The terrestrial carbon
budget in East Asia:
Human and natural
impacts, in C. Fu; J.
Freney; J. Steward,
eds. Changes in the
Human-Monsoon
System of East Asia
in the Context of
Global Change. SCOPE
Series, Island Press,
Washington, DC.
Valiela, I; Kinney, E;
Culbertson, J; Peacock,
E; Smith, S. Global
losses of mangroves
and salt marshes:
Magnitudes, causes
and consequences,
in C. Duarte, ed.
Global Loss of
Coastal Habitats:
Magnitudes, Causes,
and Consequences.
Fundacion BBVA.
Madrid.
Van Wijk, MT;
Street, LE; Williams,
M; Shaver, GR.
Evapotranspiration
in the Arctic:
determining factors
and quantification.
Ecosystems.
Valiela, I; Kinney, K;
Culbertson, J; Peacock,
E; Smith, S. Global
losses of mangroves
and salt marshes:
Magnitudes, causes
and consequences,
in C. Duarte, ed.
Global Loss of
Coastal Habitats:
Magnitudes, Causes,
and Consequences.
Fundacion BBVA.
Madrid.
Wookey, PA; Aerts,
R; Bardgett, RD;
Baptist, F; Bråthen,
KA; Cornelissen, JHC;
Gough, L; Hartley,
IP; Hopkins, DW;
Lavorel, S; Shaver, GR.
Ecosystem feedbacks
and cascade processes:
understanding their
role in the responses
of arctic and alpine
ecosystems to
environmental change.
Global Change Biology.
2008 Seminars
February
Elissa Schuett measures discharge at
the Anaktuvak River in Alaska, the
site of a fire that burned 256,000
acres in 2007. (Angela Allen)
19 Xosé (Xelu) Morán,
Centro Oceanográfico de
Xixón, Instituto Español de
Oceanografía, “Carbon flux
through bacterioplankton”
26 Johan (Joop) Varekamp,
Wesleyan University,
“Paleoenvironmental history
of Long Island Sound”
March
4 Kevin Griffin, LamontDoherty Earth Observatory,
“Climate change and plant
respiration: Mechanisms
and implications”
18 Ken Foreman, MBL
Ecosystems Center,
“Innovative nutrient
management strategies
for Cape Cod estuaries:
The science and policy of
using permeable reactive
barriers to remediate nitrate
pollution”
25 Katherine Smith, Brown
University, “U.S. live animal
imports: 1.6 billion and
climbing”
April
1 Scott Doney, Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution,
“Ocean acidification in a
future high CO2 world”
8 Roman Stocker, MIT
Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering.
“Life in the microbial world:
Making a living in a patchy
ocean”
15 Jim Tang, MBL
Ecosystems Center, “Agedriven decline of forest
productivity and respiration:
An ecological paradigm of
succession revisited”
29 Wil Wolheim, University
of New Hampshire,
“Nutrient attenuation by
river systems at watershed to
global scales”
May
6 Deborah Robertson, Clark
University, “The evolution
and regulation of nitrogen
assimilation in marine algae:
new surprises from old
enzymes”
13 Colin Polsky, Clark
University, “Reflections on
the holy grail of integrating
social and natural science:
The case of climate, land
use, and nutrient cycling in
coastal zones”
September
12 *Peter Ward, University
of Washington, “Is past
global warming in deep time
a clue to the near future on
Earth?”
16 Kathleen Savage,
Woods Hole Research
Center, “Deconstructing
soil respiration response to
environmental variables at
varying temporal scales”
30 Peter Pollard, Australian
Rivers Institute, School of
Environmental Engineering,
Griffith University, Australia
“The missing carbon link:
Terrestrial production meets
aquatic microbial processes
in freshwater ecosystems”
October
7 Aaron M. Ellison, Harvard
Forest, Harvard University
“Detection and forecasting
of thresholds in ecological
systems: What do we need to
know and when do we need
to know it?”
14 Ruth Yanai, State
University of New York,
College of Environmental
Science and Forestry,
Syracuse, “What controls
calcium depletion in
northern hardwood
ecosystems? Acid rain or
aging forests?”
November
4 Amy Lesen, Dillard
University, “New Orleans preand post-Katrina: A US case
study in coastal cities at risk.
Ecology, culture, history, and
vulnerability—What is the
role of scientists?”
11 Zoe Cardon, MBL
Ecosystems Center,
“Hydraulic redistribution in
a semi-arid Utah landscapemeasures, models, and
microbes”
18 Jim Galloway, University
of Virginia, “Food, feed and
fuel: A story about nitrogen”
25 John Peterson, Oberlin
College, “Buildings as
ecological systems: Using realtime resource use feedback
to foster understanding and
stimulate conservation”
23 Edward Rastetter,
MBL Ecosystems Center,
“The PLIRTLE model, the
Ensemble Kalman Filter,
and CO2 fluxes from Arctic
ecosystems”
21 Christopher Neill,
MBL Ecosystems Center,
“From coastal plain ponds
to coastal sandplains: The
implications of soil seed
banks for conservation
and restoration in two
endangered ecosystems of
Massachusetts”
26 *Steward Pickett, Cary
Institute of Ecosystem
Studies, “Urban ecology:
Approach and insights as
illustrated by the Baltimore
Ecosystems Study Long-Term
Ecological Research project”
24 *Ivette Perfecto, Dept.
of Natural Resources and
Environment, University of
Michigan, “Special ecology
in a coffee agroecosystem:
Implications for biological
control of pests and diseases”
* SES Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series
31 *Ruth DeFries, Lamont
Doherty Earth Observatory,
Columbia University
“Land use transitions in
the tropics”
December
2 Meredith Hastings,
Brown University, “The
biogeochemical-climate
record: A new perspective on
nitrate”
9 Adrian Rocha, MBL
Ecosystems Center, “Burn
severity influences post-fire
surface energy and mass
exchanges in arctic tundra”
Scientists at the MBL
Hugh W. Ducklow
Senior Scientist,
Co-Director
Ph.D., Harvard
University
Kenneth H. Foreman
Director of Semester in
Environmental Science
Ph.D., Boston
University
Hugh is a biological
oceanographer focusing on the roles of
bacteria in the ocean
carbon cycle. His
research in Antarctica
looks at the responses
of the continental
shelf sea ice zone
ecosystem to rapid
climate warming.
Ken’s principal
research area is the
coastal zone. In recent
years, he has been
studying the effects
of nutrient loading
on benthic and water
column communities
and processes.
Jerry M. Melillo
Senior Scientist,
Co-Director
Ph.D., Yale University
Jerry is interested in
how human activities are altering the
biogeochemistry of
terrestrial ecosystems
and especially how
global changes are
affecting the chemistry of the atmosphere
and the overall
climate system.
Zoe G. Cardon
Senior Scientist
Ph.D., Stanford
University
Zoe’s research focuses
on microbial activity
in soil around plant
roots (the rhizosphere), including
how water fluxes
driven by plants affect resource availability, local conditions,
and biogeochemistry
in the rhizosphere.
Linda A. Deegan
Senior Scientist
Ph.D., Louisiana State
University
Linda is interested in
the relationship
between animal
populations and
ecosystems because
animals can strongly
influence community
composition and ecosystem nutrient cycles
and productivity.
Anne E. Giblin
Senior Scientist
Ph.D., Boston
University
Anne’s major research
focus is the cycling of
elements in the environment, especially
the biogeochemistry
of iron, sulfur, nitrogen and phosphorus
in soils and sediments.
Bruce J. Peterson
Senior Scientist
Ph.D., Cornell
University
Bruce focuses on
understanding aquatic
productivity and global change by studying
the cycles of water,
carbon and nitrogen
at the ecosystem and
global levels.
Edward B. Rastetter Senior Scientist
Ph.D., University of
Virginia
Ed synthesizes field
and laboratory data
using simulation
models to study how
plants and microbes
optimize their use of
resources like carbon,
nitrogen, light and
water, and how that
optimization might
influence the response
of ecosystems to
global change.
Gaius R. Shaver
Senior Scientist
Ph.D., Duke University
Gus’s research is
focused on the role of
plants in ecosystem
element cycles, especially in Alaskan tundra ecosystems, where
low temperatures, low
light intensities, low
nutrient availability,
and a short growing
season all interact to
limit plant growth.
Christopher Neill
Associate Scientist
Ph.D., University
of Massachusetts,
Amherst
Chris investigates how
ecosystems cycle nutrients and organic matter and how changes
in land use, such as
deforestation in the
tropics, alter the structure and biogeochemistry of ecosystems.
Jianwu (Jim) Tang
Assistant Scientist
Ph.D., University of
California, Berkeley
Jim’s research focuses
on soil biogeochemistry and soil-plant
interactions, particularly on carbon and nitrogen cycles through
ecosystems processes.
Joseph J. Vallino
Associate Scientist
Ph.D., Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Joe’s research employs
thermodynamics to
examine how microbial metabolic networks
organize and evolve
to utilize energy and
resources in the environment.
Senior Staff
Paul Colinvaux
Senior Research Scientist
Ph.D., Duke University
John E. Hobbie
Senior Scholar
Ph.D., Indiana University
Paul studies past climates and
vegetation from the Amazon
to the Arctic through analysis
of air-borne pollen trapped in
lake sediments.
As an aquatic ecologist, John
identifies the factors controlling decomposition and
productivity in aquatic ecosystems, especially the role that
microbes play.
Adjunct Scientists
Paul A. Steudler
Senior Research Scholar
M.S., University of
Oklahoma
Ivan Valiela
Senior Research Scientist
Boston University
Ph.D., Cornell University
Paul is interested in the
responses of temperate and
tropical forest and agricultural ecosystems to disturbances like hurricanes, nitrogen and sulfur additions,
forest cutting and regrowth,
and increased temperature.
Ivan is interested in the coupling of land use on watersheds and coastal ecosystems
in the larger context of global
change.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Maureen H. Conte
Adjunct Scientist in Residence
Bermuda Institute of Ocean
Sciences
Ph.D., Columbia University
Robert Howarth
Cornell University
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute
of Technology/Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution
Maureen’s research speciality
is trace level molecular and
isotopic organic geochemistry.
Research focus areas include
deep ocean particle flux and
the organic geochemistry of
biogenic aerosols.
Bob’s long-term interest is in
environmental management
and the effects of nutrients and
pollutants on aquatic ecosystems. 
His scientific approach is through
biogeochemistry, particularly
nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur
cycling and export from land to
waters.
Adrian V. Rocha
Postdoctoral Scientist
Ph.D., University of California,
Irvine
Sophia E. Fox
Ph.D., Boston University
Sophia’s research focuses on
examining mechanisms of landsea coupling and the effects of
human activities on receiving
coastal ecosystems, paricularly
plant and animal community
structure and food web
relationships.
Adrian’s research focuses on the
biological and environmental
controls on ecosystem exchanges
of mass and energy at various
temporal and spacial scales.
Gabrielle Tomasky-Holmes
Ph.D., Boston University
Gabby coordinates an Arctic
Observations Network and
analyzes carbon dioxide fluxes
between tundra and atmosphere
at several sites around the Arctic.
Staff
Staff
Dorothy J. Berthel
Administrative Assistant
Donald W. Burnette
Research Assistant
M.S., Southern Illinois University
Sarah M. Butler
Research Assistant
M.S., University of Maine
Timothy Cronin
Research Assistant
B. A., Swarthmore College
Matthew J. Erickson
Senior Research Assistant
M.S., University of WisconsinOshkosh
Troy D. Hill
Research Assistant
M.S., Yale University
Robert H. Garritt
M.S., Cornell University
Melanie Hayn
Research Assistant
B.S., Cornell University
Kelly R. Holzworth
Research Administrator
University of San Diego
Samuel W. Kelsey
Research Assistant
B.S., Dickinson College
David W. Kicklighter
Research Associate
M.S., University of Montana
Bonnie L. Kwiatkowski
Research Assistant
M.S., University of New Hampshire
James A. Laundre
M.S., University of Connecticut
Christina Maki
Research Assistant
B.A., Bates College
Richard P. McHorney
M.S., University of Pennsylvania
Kate Morkeski
Research Assistant
M.S., Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University
Stephanie Oleksyk
Research Assistant
M.A., Clark University
Marshall L. Otter
Ph.D., University of Cape Town
Jennifer M. Peters
Research Assistant
B.A., Bard College
Rebecca L. Prosser
Research Assistant
B.A., Earlham College
Deborah G. Scanlon
Projects and Publications
Coordinator
B.A., Syracuse University
Elissa B. Schuett
Research Assistant
M.S., Frostburg State University
Mary Ann Seifert
Administrative Assistant
B.A., Alfred University
Suzanne M. Thomas
Research Assistant
M.S., University of Pennsylvania
Jane Tucker
M.S., University of North
Carolina
Chelsea L. Vario
Research Assistant
B. S., University of New
Hampshire
J.C. Weber
M.S., University of Delaware
Daniel J. White
Research Assistant
M.S., State University of New York
at Brockport
Graduate Students
Brown-MBL Graduate Program in Biological and Environmental Sciences
Shelby Hayhoe
B.A. Grinnell College
Advisors: Christopher Neill,
Ecosystems Center
Stephen Porder, Brown
University
Gillian L. Galford
B.A., Washington
University
Yawei Luo
M.S., Peking
University
Advisors: Hugh
Ducklow, Ecosystems
Center
Warren Prell, Brown
University
Kristen M. S. Myers
B.A., College of William
and Mary
Advisors: Hugh
Ducklow, Ecosystems
Center
Jeremy Rich, Brown
University
Lindsay D. Brin
B.A., Swarthmore College
Advisors: Anne Giblin,
Ecosystems Center
Jeremy Rich, Brown
University
Ketil Koop-Jakobsen
Ph.D. candidate, Boston
University
M.S., Roskilde University,
Denmark
Erin L. Kinney
University
B.A., Dartmouth College
Rita Oliveira Monteiro
Ph.D candidate, SUNY ESF
M.S., Université de Liège,
Belgium
Ylva Olsen
University
M. S., University of
Plymouth, UK
Advisors: Jerry Melillo,
Ecosystems Center
Jack Mustard, Brown
University
Visiting Graduate Students
Neil Bettez
Ph.D. candidate, Cornell
University
M.S., University of North
Carolina, Greensboro
Consultants
Staff who left in 2008
Francis P. Bowles, Research Systems Consultant
Carlos E. P. Cerri
Alina S. Cushing
Heidi Golden
Marselle Ozinskas-Alexander, Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship
Angela Allen, Graduate Student, University of Alabama
Jennifer S. Barkman, Graduate Student, University of Maryland
Benjamin Felzer, Assistant Professor, Lehigh University
Clara Funk, Graduate Student, University of Virginia
Jennifer E. Johnson, Graduate Student, Stanford University
Seeta Sistla, Graduate Student, University of California, Santa Barbara
Aaron L. Strong, Technical Assistant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Visiting Scientists and Scholars
Peter Berg, University of Virginia
Thomas Duncan, Nichols College
James Galloway, University of Virginia
Roxanne Marino, Cornell University
Karen McGlathery, University of Virginia
Xelu Morán, Instituto Español de Oceanografía
Barbara Ondiviela, Universidad de Contrabria
Yumei Zhou, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Sources of Support for Research and Education
T
he annual operating budget of The Ecosystems Center for 2008
was $7,960,000. Approximately 71% of the income of the center
comes from grants for basic research from government agencies,
including the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Department
of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. The other
29% comes from gifts and grants from private foundations, including
support for the Semester in Environmental Science, as well as from
institutional support for administration and income from the center’s
reserve and endowment funds, and from the MBL.
These non-governmental funds provide flexibility for the development
of new research projects, public policy activities and educational
programs.
The combined total value of the center’s reserve fund and endowment
at the end of 2008 was $3,320,000. Income from the reserve fund and
endowment helps defray the costs of operations, writing proposals,
consulting for government agencies and the center’s seminar program.
The Ecosystems Center is grateful for the support it has received from
the following corporations and foundations over the past five years:
Arthur Vining Davis Foundation
Blum-Kovler Foundation, Inc.
The Clowes Fund, Inc.
Harken Foundation
Horizon Foundation, Inc.
The Kohlberg Foundation, Inc.
Massachusetts Environmental Trust
Mayer & Morris Kaplan Family Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
The Harold Whitworth Pierce Charitable Trust
The Sirius Fund
The Starr Foundation
Sugar, Friedberg and Felsenthal LLP
Great Sippewissett Marsh, Falmouth, Massachusetts. (Ivan Valiela)
Expenses
Revenue
71%
Government Grants
2%
Private
12%
MBL
11%
Ecosystems Center Reserve Fund
4%
Contributions
52%
Personnel
21%
Overhead
18%
Operating
9%
Subcontracts
The Ecosystems Center
MBL
7 MBL Street
Woods Hole, MA 02543-1301
www.MBL.edu

2008 - Marine Biological Laboratory

Transcription

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