RESEARCH AT THE ECOSYSTEMS CENTER: COLLABORATION

Because the complex nature of modern ecosystems research requires a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach, Ecosystems Center scientists work together on projects bringing expertise from a wide range of disciplines to bear on a variety of questions. Center scientists are currently conducting more than 30 research projects all over the world, many in collaboration with colleagues at other institutions.

Center scientists travel around the world to study temperate forests and tropical pastures, coastal estuaries and arctic tundra, lakes, and streams. Sites range from the Arctic to Brazil and East Africa, from the temperate forests of New England to the estuaries of the East Coast of the United States. Ecosystems studied include tundra, forest stands, pastures, lakes and streams, coastal estuaries, and watersheds. Research is unified by similarities in the questions asked, the methods used, and the models constructed. Knowledge gained from one ecosystem is applicable to others. By studying one process, such as the decomposition of soil organic matter in a wide range of temperature and moisture conditions, scientists can confidently predict its rate in an unstudied system.

Although Center researchers make observations and conduct experiments at field sites around the world, much of their work takes place in Woods Hole. Staff members teach in courses, analyze data, carry out modeling simulations, and conduct laboratory experiments in the Center's facilities at the MBL. These facilities include a mass spectrometer for stable isotope analysis, chemical analytical laboratories and experimental chambers. Researchers prepare field samples for chemical analysis and carry out experiments on plant or microbial growth in the aquatic and terrestrial laboratories available in the Center. In the chemistry laboratory, samples are analyzed for variables such as nutrient content or rates of microbial growth and release of trace gases. The Center's Stable Isotope Facility is used to estimate rates of transfer of nitrogen, carbon or sulfur in aquatic and terrestrial food webs.

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