Century-long Experiment Tests Forest Diversity
October 29, 2013
Tucked into the wooded landscape and rolling hills of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center is a new forest.
Six months ago, a cornfield covered this terrain. Today, it is the BiodiversiTree project, with 24,000 stick-like year-old trees. By next spring, if everything goes as planned, 35,000 trees will cover 10 fields.
“We're trying to figure out whether or not an ecosystem with lots of species functions any better or worse than an ecosystem with only a few species,” said senior scientist John Parker, who developed the plan.
Prior smaller-scale research suggests diversity matters because it reduces pests and makes trees healthier. But Parker wondered if he would find the same result if he looked at an entire forest over the long-term.
Sum of the parts
The 100-year BiodiversiTree project calls for 125 plots with one, four or 12 species each. Marked off in the field by tall white poles, Parker says each provides a unique research opportunity.
“In many cases what we are seeing is a decline in native species, and then the question is, well, does that mean anything?" Parker said. "Can other species fill that role of that missing species or does each species do something a little bit different such that the sum of the parts is more than the whole?”
While BiodiversiTree has a century to supply the answers, studies are beginning now. The area sits beside forested land and near a stream that flows into the Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary and a valuable natural resource that provides fresh drinking water for millions of people.
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