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Harvard Forest Research Project 2024
- Title: Forest-atmosphere exchange in an old hemlock forest
- Principal investigator: J. William Munger (jwmunger@seas.harvard.edu)
- Institution: Harvard University
- Primary contact: Mark VanScoy (mvanscoy@fas.harvard.edu)
- Team members: Julian Hadley
David Orwig
Mark VanScoy - Abstract:
The Hemlock tower was the second flux tower installed at the Harvard Forest. The Hemlock tower is sited at the edge of a large patch of forest dominated by Hemlock, and provides data to contrast with the EMS tower that is surrounded by predominantly deciduous forest of red oak and red maple. Measurements at the Hemlock tower include eddy fluxes of carbon dioxide, water, heat and momentum, along solar radiation, and vertical profiles of CO2 and water vapor concentration, temperature, relative humidity and light. Eddy flux measurements quantify the net ecosystem exchange of gases like CO2, which is the balance between uptake by photosynthesis and emission by respiration and decomposition. The importance of having carbon flux measurements in a hemlock stand has become more important since the onset of an infestation by Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. The observations up to about 2010 precede the infestation and observations since then are helping us to track the impact of hemlock decline on the exchange of CO2 and water from the hemlock forest.
