The Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study: Celebrating 50 Years

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Continuous, truly long-term studies are exceedingly rare in ecology. On 1 June 2013, the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES), located in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, celebrated its 50th anniversary. This momentous event was fêted on 9 July with a day-long symposium at the research site. The site is administered by the USDA Forest Service and currently serves as NSF LTER and LTREB sites. The HBES was initiated in 1963 by F. H. Bormann, G. E. Likens, R. S. Pierce, and N. M. Johnson to study the ecological, hydrological, and biogeochemical interactions in watershed–ecosystems. The hallmark HBES small watershed–ecosystem approach has been replicated in many places throughout the world. During the past 50 years, the HBES has been highly productive and greatly expanded in scope. Six major scientific findings are especially noteworthy: (1) discovery of acid rain in North America and its impact on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (Likens et al. 1972, Likens and Bormann 1974); (2) validation of the small watershed–ecosystem approach as a powerful scientific tool in tackling problems at the landscape scale of complexity (ecological, hydrological, biogeochemical); (3) confirmation that clear-cutting and other major forest disturbances cause severe disruptions in the vital nitrogen cycle of terrestrial ecosystems (Likens et al. 1970); (4) major depletion of base cations, primarily calcium, from soil pools by acid rain (Likens et al. 1996); (5) dramatic decreases in chemistry of precipitation and stream water to extremely low concentrations (Likens and Buso 2012); and (6) that food limitation, climate, and forest structure account for most dramatic changes in the abundances of neotropical migrant birds (Holmes 2011). More than 1470 scientific publications, 11 books, and 8 monographs have been published. Hundreds of graduate, undergraduate, postdoctoral associates, and technicians have been mentored and trained at Hubbard Brook, resulting in 101 Ph.D. and 68 Master's theses. Some 40–50 investigators from 20 or more institutions currently do research at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. The initial paper describing the conceptual approach and major objectives of the HBES was published in Science (Bormann and Likens 1967). Now, faced with greatly increasing problems of human-accelerated environmental change (Likens 1991), the Hubbard Brook approach to understanding complicated ecosystem function, and particularly the response to anthropogenic disturbances, is more valuable than ever. Gene E. Likens, Co-founder of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study, is Founding Director, President Emeritus, and Distinguished Senior Scientist Emeritus of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies.