MBL: The Ecosystems Center

RESEARCH

The Ecosystems Center conducts research in projects from Alaska, Sweden and Russia in the Arctic to the Antarctic, from the streams and pastures of Brazil to the estuaries of New England... More>>>

EDUCATION

The Ecosystems Center is actively involved in education in a variety of ways....More>>>

Semester in Environmental Science
The Semester in Environmental Science (SES) is a 15-week fall semester at the Ecosystems Center.... More>>>

Brown/MBL Graduate Program
Four students are working with Ecosystems Center scientists in the MBL’s graduate program with Brown University... More>>>

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ECOSYSTEMS CENTER!


In June, researchers remove slime-covered "curtain" from Alaskan lake that had been in place since 1985.

One of World’s Dirtiest Jobs : Removing ‘Curtain’ from Arctic Lake

In 1985, a “curtain” was installed to divide Lake N2 at the Arctic Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site at Toolik Lake, Alaska. The goal was to produce a divided lake to study the effects of increased nutrients in an Arctic lake due to climate change and increased land use. The nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus were added to one side while the other side was the control side, free of any additions.

The curtain was made of polyethylene, with chains on the bottom to weigh it down in the relatively shallow (7-meter) lake and floats on the top to keep the top of the curtain floating. Ecosystems Center scientists and their LTER colleagues brought it across Toolik Lake by boat, then carried it the 300 or 400 yards to Lake N2. The day the curtain was installed was very windy, recalls John Hobbie, principal investigator on the Arctic LTER project, and “the curtain came up in to the wind like a spinnaker.” It took some effort to bring it down and place it in the lake.... More>>>

More Ecosystems Center News

ECOSYSTEMS CENTER IN THE MEDIA

MBL Science Journalism Program Fellows were in the Arctic for two weeks in June with Ecosystems scientist Chris Neill and research assistant Rich McHorney. They spent time at the Long Term Ecological Research site at Toolik Lake, Alaska, with MBL scientists and others who study the ecology of the surrounding tundra, streams and lakes. Among recent postings are journalists Chelsea Wald's blog for Scientific American and Gretchen Weber's postings to WQED's Climate Watch. The Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which manages the Toolik Lake site, has a media resources web page with background information and recent work by the journalists.

Hugh Ducklow is featured in the current issue of Cape Cod Life as an "Environmental Pioneer." Writer Mindy Todd highlights Ducklow's climate change research at Antarctica's Palmer Station Long Term Ecological Research site where scientists have found that the average midwinter temperature has increased by 11 degrees Fahrenheit since 1950.

An Arctic With Fire in the April 21 issue of U.S. News and World Report quotes Gus Shaver about the unusual number of Arctic wildfires, which he calls a new "disturbance regime," and the implications for climate change.

For more Ecosystems Center scientists in the media, >>>.

FEATURES


Many LTER Scientists Honored by American Institute of Biological Sciences Award The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) network received the 2010 Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS). More>>>

Scientists are studying the effects of deforestation in Panama. The group, led by Ivan Valiela and Anne Giblin, includes Jane Tucker, Rich McHorney, Rita Oliveira Monteiro and Sarah Wilkins from the Ecosystems Center, and researchers from the U. S. Geological Service, Woods Hole Research Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Universidad Nacional de Mar de Plata, and students from Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata and Universidad de Panama.. More>>>

STAFF NEWS

New PhDs Receive Diplomas at Brown and BU Graduations

Graduation ceremonies were held at Brown University and Boston University last month and three Ecosystems Center graduate students received their PhD degrees. Gillian Galford and Yawei (Wayne) Luo were graduated from Brown and Erin Kinney received her degree from Boston University. More >>>

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Cai, W-J., G. W. Luther III, J. C. Cornwell, and A. Giblin. 2010. Carbon cycling and the coupling between proton and electron transfer reactions in aquatic sediments in Lake Champlain. Aquat Geochem 16:421–446 DOI 10.1007/s10498-010-9097-9

Fox, S. E., Y. S. Olsen, M. Teichberg and I. Valiela. 2010. Controls acting on benthic macrophyte communities in a temperate and tropical estuary, pp. 203-226. In: M. J. Kennish and H. W. Paerl (eds.) Coastal Lagoons: Critical Habitats of Environmental Change. CRC Press.

Weston, N.B., A. E. Giblin, G. T. Banta, C. S. Hopkinson and J. Tucker. 2010. The effects of varying salinity on ammonium exchange in estuarine sediments of the Parker River, Massachusetts. Estuaries and Coasts 33:985-1003.

Giblin, A .E., N. B. Weston, G. T. Banta, J. Tucker and C. S. Hopkinson. 2010. The effects of salinity on nitrogen losses from an oligohaline estuarine sediment. Estuaries and Coasts DOI: 10.1007/s12237-010-9280-7

York, J. K., G. Tomasky, I. Valiela and A. E. Giblin. 2010. Isotopic approach to determining the fate of ammonium regenerated from sediments in a eutrophic sub-estuary of Waquoit Bay, MA. Estuaries and Coasts DOI: 10.1007/s12237-010-9278-1

Yano, Y., G. R. Shaver, A. E. Giblin, E. B. Rastetter, and K. J. Nadelhoffer. 2010. Nitrogen dynamics in a small arctic watershed: Retention and downhill movement of ¹⁵N. Ecological Monographs 80 (2): 331-351.

Vallino, J.J. 2010. Ecosystem biogeochemistry considered as a distributed metabolic network ordered by maximum entropy production. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 365, 1417-1427, doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0272

Fleeger, J. W., D. S. Johnson, K. R. Carman, P. B. Weisenhorn, A. Gabriele, D. Thistle, and J. P. Barry. 2010. The response of nematodes to deep-sea CO₂ sequestration: a quantile regression approach. Deep-sea Research I 57:696-707

Janssens, I. A., W. Dieleman, S. Luyssaert, J-A. Subke, M. Reichstein, R. Ceulemans, P. Ciais, A. J. Dolman, J. Grace, G. Matteucci, D. Papale, S. L. Piao, E-D. Schulze, J. Tang and B.E. Law. 2010. Reduction of forest soil respiration in response to nitrogen deposition. Nature Geoscience doi:10.1038/ngeo844 Review

Brin, L. D., I. Valiela, D. Goehringer and B. Howes. 2010. Nitrogen interception and export by experimental salt marsh plots exposed to chronic nutrient addition. Marine Ecoogy Progress Series 400:3-17

Montes-Hugo, M., C. Sweeney, S. C. Doney, H. Ducklow, R. Frouin, D. G. Martinson, S. Stammerjohn and O. Schofield. 2010. Seasonal forcing of summer dissolved inorganic carbon and chlorophyll a on the western shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula. Journal of Geophysical Research 115, C03024, doi:10.1029/2009JC0005267.

Full Publications List