The Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Studies

       The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) is a 3,160 hectare reserve located in the White Mountain National Forest, near Woodstock, New Hampshire. The on-site research program is dedicated to the long-term study of forest and associated aquatic ecosystems. The HBEF was established in 1955 as a major center for hydrologic research in New England. It is operated by the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. In 1963 the scope of the study was expanded with the initiation of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES). DRS. F. Herbert Bormann, Gene E. Likens and Noye M. Johnson, then on the faculty of Dartmouth College, and Dr. Robert S. Pierce of the USDA Forest Service proposed to use the small watershed approach at Hubbard Brook to study linkages between hydrologic and nutrient cycles in response to natural and human disturbances, such as air pollution, forest cutting, land-use changes, increases in insect populations and climatic factors.

         The first grant was awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1963 to support the research of the HBES. Since that time there has been continuous support from the NSF and the USDA Forest Service. In 1988 the HBEF was designated as a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site by the NSF. On-going cooperative efforts among diverse educational institutions, private institutions, government agencies, foundations and corporations have resulted in one of the most extensive and longest continuous data bases on the hydrology, biology, geology and chemistry of natural ecosystems.