FSML: Infrastructure for Whole-Plant Biology and Experimental Plant Ecology at the Harvard Forest

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides partial support for the modernization of greenhouse and laboratory facilities for research in whole-plant biology and experimental plant ecology in at the Harvard Forest. The improvements to facilities include: new electrical and mechanical systems and automated climate control for an existing greenhouse, and renovations that will provide a multi-user laboratory for plant physiology. The proposed infrastructure improvements will provide researchers using the Harvard Forest with state-of-the-art facilities for fundamental research in plant biology and ecology. The facilities will complement extensive field sites and automated data acquisition systems used by broad user groups associated with an NSF Long Term Ecological Research site, a DOE National Institutes for Global Environmental Change program, and the Harvard Forest Research Program for Undergraduates. The improvements will facilitate syntheses of experimental work on plant structure, function, ecophysiology, and community ecology with large-scale studies of ecosystem dynamics at the Harvard Forest. Facilities will be used extensively by graduate and undergraduate students involved in dissertation research, and research and training projects supported by a NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduate site award and by the United Negro College Fund-Mellon Foundation Research Experience for Minority Undergraduates.