Introduction Page 9D |
| |||
5. Watershed 1 . Unlike the previous watershed experiments, Watershed 1 was not cut. Instead, the experimental treatment applied to this watershed has to do with the effects of acid precipitation on northern hardwood forest soils. Watch the calcium addition video. Over the past 50 years acid precipitation has been falling on the HBEF. Among other things, acid rain washes calcium - a nutrient important to plant and tree growth - out of forest soils.
In October 1999, scientists applied calcium silicate - in a mineral form known as "wollastonite" - to all of Watershed 1 in an experiment designed to replace the calcium that has been washed out of the soil by acid rain. A helicopter was used to apply forty-five tons of wollastonite to the watershed, increasing the levels of soil calcium to those believed to exist before acid precipitation began falling on the forest. Over the next 50 years (this is a VERY long experiment!) scientists will investigate the response of major ecosystem processes, including stream, soil, and soil water chemistry; forest floor mass and chemistry; composition and structure of the forest, aquatic ecology; leaf chemistry; soil microorganism activity, and ultimately tree growth. For more information on the Watershed 1 experiment, including photos of the calcium addition, click here. This section of the HBEF website was designed for a college-educated audience.
As you can see, these watershed experiments have been conducted and monitored over very long periods of time - it just isn't possible to understand how a forest functions or reacts to a large disturbance without watching it for a long while. In fact, long-term research and monitoring has always been important at the HBEF, and is a part of just about every type of research done here. In the next section of the Introduction, you will learn about long-term research. |
|