New Laboratory Equipment Awarded to Harvard Forest

Harvard Forest was recently awarded $59,640.00 from a National Science Foundation grant to purchase new nutrient analysis equipment for community, ecosystem, hydrological, and physiological research. The grant was a Multi-User/Instrumentation and Instrument Development Grant (DBI-0400759) submitted in autumn 2003 by a team of researchers and collaborators including David Foster, David Orwig, Aaron Ellison, and Betsy Colburn of Harvard Forest, Michele Holbrook of Harvard University, Paul Steudler of The Marine Biological Laboratory, and Paul Barten of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The award will be used to purchase a new multi-channel, automated ion analyzer with ion chromatograph to be housed in the Harvard Forest John G. Torrey Laboratory. These instruments will used to meet the increasing demand for nutrient analyses of soils and water in individual trees, forests, bogs, fens, streams, pitcher plants, and their invertebrate food webs. The equipment will be an ideal complement to the lab and will be applicable to many current and future research projects. Users will be comprised of faculty, staff, and students from several Harvard University Departments, outside collaborators and institutions, visiting Bullard Fellows, and undergraduate students participating in the Harvard Forest Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program from a wide range of outside universities, small colleges, and community colleges.