The Hubbard Brook (HBR) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program will mark the 50th anniversary of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES) with a day-long celebration and symposium on July 9, 2013. Ever since its first water sample was logged in June 1963, the HBES has been highly productive, with major discoveries regarding acid rain, lead and salt pollution, the effects of anthropogenic and natural disturbances on the N cycle, and the shifting abundance of neotropical migrant birds, among other topics. The Hubbard Brook small watershed model of studying landscape-scale complexity has been replicated throughout the world. HBR joined the LTER Network in 1988, and the 3,160-hectare site is managed by the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station.
The roster of speakers for the symposium includes three keynote speakers: Gene E. Likens, a co-founder of HBES with the late Herbert Bormann, Noye Johnson, and Robert Pierce, who will talk about the 50-year record of research at Hubbard Brook; Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund; and Catherine Woteki, USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics and the Department’s Chief Scientist. The symposium will also feature five “Herb Talks,” in the style of Ted Talks (www.ted.com) and in memory of Bormann, who died last year.
The five talks are:
- “Creeping Degradation and the Future of the Northern Hardwood Forest,” by John Battles, University of California, Berkeley
- “One Atmosphere,” by Charles Driscoll, Syracuse University
- “Unconstrained by Watersheds: Animals in the Hubbard Brook Ecosystems,” by Nick Rodenhouse, Wellesley College
- “Confronting Climate Change in the 21st Century: How the New “Normal” of Extremes Is Shaping Forests,” by Lindsey Rustad, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station
- “Science and Society: Living Up to Herb’s ‘Payback Imperative,’” by Kathy Fallon Lambert, Harvard Forest, Harvard University
The symposium will be open to the public on a first come, first served basis due to limitations of space at HBR. The day-long event will include a picnic lunch and barbecue dinner and tours of HBR and the adjacent Mirror Lake research site. Those interested can register at www.hubbardbrookfoundation.org.