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January 2003, Vol. 12, No.1 | Return to Table of Contents
MBL Purchases Farm to Support Ecosystems Center Research at Plum Island Sound
Scientists from the MBL's Ecosystems Center have been conducting interdisciplinary research at the Plum Island Sound estuary for more than 20 years. In 1998 this area, which is located near Ipswich on the northeastern coast of Massachusetts, was designated a Long-Term Ecological Research site by the National Science Foundation. Since then, the MBL has received approximately $11 million from the federal government in support of this research.
Research at Plum Island focuses on watershed, estuarine and nearshore ecosystems. The multidisciplinary investigations range from social science issues such as modeling the future spatial distribution of land use (forests, farms, urban areas), to biogeochemistry of carbon and nitrogen cycling, to the physics of gas exchange across the air-water interface.
Over the years the MBL has rented a small cottage near the site to help facilitate this research. With scientists from more than 25 institutions now collaborating with MBL investigators at Plum Island, this facility is too small to meet the growing needs of the project. In December, the MBL purchased a 5-acre property in nearby Newbury known as Marshview Farm. The property has two dwellings that will be used to house investigators and a large barn that will be converted to laboratory space. A local farmer has agreed to serve as caretaker of the property.
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