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Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest
Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is an area of land in the towns of Woodstock, Ellsworth and Thornton in the White Mountains of New Hampshire that functions as an outdoor laboratory for ecological studies. It was established in 1955 by the United States Forest Service for the study of the relationship between forest cover and water quality and supply.
In 1955, the first tract was dedicated in the Hubbard Brook watershed, just west of the village of West Thornton, New Hampshire. The first stream in the forest was fitted with monitoring devices in 1956. Subsequently, seven additional headwater streams and their associated watersheds were delimited for study. Each such zone functions essentially as a closed environmental system. Since the efflux of water, minerals, and water-bound organisms leaving each watershed (and leaving the entire forest as well) can be monitored, the effects of changes experimentally introduced into the system can be measured.
For the first five or six years after its establishment the HBEF was used for research in forestry but soon its value for study of the forest ecosystem was recognized and it attracted the interest of researchers from major universities. The work at Hubbard Brook has led researchers there and elsewhere to try to model or better understand the complex forest ecosystem, including its interaction with humans. HBEF research teams have succeeded in elucidating a number of vexing environmental problems, most notably the harmful effects of acid rain. The forest preservation the research promotes helps to protect watershed chemistry, ambient humidity, seasonal temperature fluctuations, and wildlife habitats.
The idea for using the small watershed approach being used at Hubbard Brook for studies of elemental budgets and cycles was born with Professor F. Herbert Bormann of Dartmouth College, who began taking his botany classes for field trips to this area of the White Mountain National Forest in the early 1950s, and Forest Service scientist Robert Pierce. Bormann proposed to Pierce that the area set aside by the Forest Service for watershed studies be used for closed-system ecological studies.
In 1960, soon after the establishment of HBEF, ecologist Gene Likens and geologist Noye Johnson, both from Dartmouth, joined the research team. In 1963, the group received a $60,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study "Hydrological-Mineral Cycle Interaction in a Small Watershed". This study evolved into the series of longitudinal studies now referred to as the "Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study", or HBES. The early ecosystem monitoring was aimed at studying the effects of forest management practices on water flow and quality. These data have been helpful as baselines for the increasingly sophisticated areas of ongoing research in the forest. HBES has spawned over 2000 scientific papers, perhaps most important a 1968 study that documented the widespread presence of "acid rain". HBRF was designated as a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in 1988 and has some of the longest on-going ecological datasets.
Currently the study comprises researchers from multiple universities, including Dartmouth College, Yale University, Cornell University, Syracuse University, SUNY ESF, the University of New Hampshire, Keene State College and the University of Vermont. The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation provides housing for research assistants at nearby Pleasant View Farm and recently completed the purchase of cottages for visiting and resident scientists around Mirror Lake, the point at which Hubbard Brook exits the experimental forest.
Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is the most recently added research forest under USFS jurisdiction for hydrologic studies in the eastern and southern United States.
Located in the White Mountain National Forest in central New Hampshire, within the town of Woodstock, the 31-square-kilometer (12 sq mi) bowl-shaped forested valley has hilly terrain, ranging from 222 to 1,015 meters (728 to 3,330 ft) in altitude. The forest comprises nine individual watersheds, each of which drains into Hubbard Brook which flows eastward into the Pemigewasset River near West Thornton. The outlet from Mirror Lake, a much-studied pond and recreation site, flows south into Hubbard Brook just before the brook passes under Interstate 93.
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Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest
Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is an area of land in the towns of Woodstock, Ellsworth and Thornton in the White Mountains of New Hampshire that functions as an outdoor laboratory for ecological studies. It was established in 1955 by the United States Forest Service for the study of the relationship between forest cover and water quality and supply.
In 1955, the first tract was dedicated in the Hubbard Brook watershed, just west of the village of West Thornton, New Hampshire. The first stream in the forest was fitted with monitoring devices in 1956. Subsequently, seven additional headwater streams and their associated watersheds were delimited for study. Each such zone functions essentially as a closed environmental system. Since the efflux of water, minerals, and water-bound organisms leaving each watershed (and leaving the entire forest as well) can be monitored, the effects of changes experimentally introduced into the system can be measured.
For the first five or six years after its establishment the HBEF was used for research in forestry but soon its value for study of the forest ecosystem was recognized and it attracted the interest of researchers from major universities. The work at Hubbard Brook has led researchers there and elsewhere to try to model or better understand the complex forest ecosystem, including its interaction with humans. HBEF research teams have succeeded in elucidating a number of vexing environmental problems, most notably the harmful effects of acid rain. The forest preservation the research promotes helps to protect watershed chemistry, ambient humidity, seasonal temperature fluctuations, and wildlife habitats.
The idea for using the small watershed approach being used at Hubbard Brook for studies of elemental budgets and cycles was born with Professor F. Herbert Bormann of Dartmouth College, who began taking his botany classes for field trips to this area of the White Mountain National Forest in the early 1950s, and Forest Service scientist Robert Pierce. Bormann proposed to Pierce that the area set aside by the Forest Service for watershed studies be used for closed-system ecological studies.
In 1960, soon after the establishment of HBEF, ecologist Gene Likens and geologist Noye Johnson, both from Dartmouth, joined the research team. In 1963, the group received a $60,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study "Hydrological-Mineral Cycle Interaction in a Small Watershed". This study evolved into the series of longitudinal studies now referred to as the "Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study", or HBES. The early ecosystem monitoring was aimed at studying the effects of forest management practices on water flow and quality. These data have been helpful as baselines for the increasingly sophisticated areas of ongoing research in the forest. HBES has spawned over 2000 scientific papers, perhaps most important a 1968 study that documented the widespread presence of "acid rain". HBRF was designated as a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in 1988 and has some of the longest on-going ecological datasets.
Currently the study comprises researchers from multiple universities, including Dartmouth College, Yale University, Cornell University, Syracuse University, SUNY ESF, the University of New Hampshire, Keene State College and the University of Vermont. The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation provides housing for research assistants at nearby Pleasant View Farm and recently completed the purchase of cottages for visiting and resident scientists around Mirror Lake, the point at which Hubbard Brook exits the experimental forest.
Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is the most recently added research forest under USFS jurisdiction for hydrologic studies in the eastern and southern United States.
Located in the White Mountain National Forest in central New Hampshire, within the town of Woodstock, the 31-square-kilometer (12 sq mi) bowl-shaped forested valley has hilly terrain, ranging from 222 to 1,015 meters (728 to 3,330 ft) in altitude. The forest comprises nine individual watersheds, each of which drains into Hubbard Brook which flows eastward into the Pemigewasset River near West Thornton. The outlet from Mirror Lake, a much-studied pond and recreation site, flows south into Hubbard Brook just before the brook passes under Interstate 93.