Budget Justification

As indicated throughout the proposal, the activities of the HF LTER program are strongly supported through additional outside funding from other agencies and NSF (see Leveraging, below) as well as strong institutional involvement in support of infrastructure, land base and personnel (see Institutional Support, below). The LTER budget is used to fund five major categories of activity that are essential to the long-term maintenance, coordination, integration, and sustainability of the research and educational programs described in this proposal. These include: (1) salary for research scientists and co-investigators, (2) salary support for research assistants and technicians who maintain long-term experiments, measurements, and analyses, (3) salary for data management personnel, (4) support for project coordination and exchange, including administrative supplies and travel to HF LTER science meetings, conferences and research sites, (5) research support for long-term measurements and experiments including equipment replacement, laboratory and field supplies, and publication costs.

A.Senior personnel. In our continued commitment to data management, the proposed budget includes the salary for our Data Manager (Dr. Emery Boose). The salary for Co-Investigators Foster and Wofsy will be provided from other sources while Dr. Bazzaz is funded for one summer month annually from LTER funds.

B. Other personnel. We request funds for two research assistants, two post-doctoral positions and one senior research associate. The research assistants will be involved in maintaining long-term experiments, measurements and laboratory analyses. One research assistant will also be responsible for coordinating activities of other research assistants supported through other agency funding as well as summer students. One post-doctoral position will support population and morphological analyses investigating the mechanisms of plant response to disturbance. The other post-doctoral position will examine the relationship between invasive species and land use history. The senior research associate, Dr. William Munger, will continue to coordinate the operation of the Environmental Measurement Station at the Harvard Forest with main responsibility for analyses of nitrogen fluxes. Most of these positions will be assisted in their research by a number of undergraduate students supported through the summer research program. Since the beginning of the Harvard Forest LTER program, student research and training has been a major part of the LTER program. Currently six Harvard graduate students work on LTER studies. We intend to continue undergraduate and graduate student involvement through support from other NSF and agency funding and Harvard University graduate programs.

D.Equipment. The Environmental Measurement Station comprises approximately $800,000 in equipment and an operating budget in excess of $200,000. Requested funding for equipment includes replacement gauges, pumps, computer, and analytical equipment ($20,000 annually) to maintain and upgrade the system through the duration of the grant.

E.Travel. We request modest funds to support travel to field sites, national conferences and symposia, and LTER scientist meetings and to underwrite travel associated with regular meetings of the HF LTER science team. Support for the annual Harvard Forest LTER Symposium is also requested. This two-day event is an essential means of program integration, synthesis, and advertisement to other scholars and scientists.

G.Other Direct Costs. Modest funds are requested for research and administrative materials and supplies and to underwrite some of the major publication expenses associated with HF LTER.

A. Senior Personnel. We request one summer month of salary annually for John Aber, Co-Investigator on the project.

B. Other Personnel. Alison Magill, Supervisor of Laboratory Research at UNH, will be responsible for continuing the treatments and core measurements in the N saturation experiment and for carrying out all sample collection, preparation, and analysis associated with the project. Ms. Magill, who has overseen this experiment for more than 10 years, will also supervise assistants assigned to this project and supported through other funding sources.

E. Travel. Funds are requested for travel for the research assistant and Co-Investigator to the field site and for annual travel to scientific meetings.

G. Other Direct Costs. Included are field supplies for treatment and sampling of the N saturation plots, laboratory supplies for soil solution, bulk soil, and organic material analysis, and computer supplies.

A. Senior Personnel. One summer month of salary annually is requested for each Co-Investigator on the project, Drs. Melillo, Nadelhoffer and Steudler.

B. Other Personnel. Two research assistants will work half time on the project each year. They will monitor the experimental infrastructure which includes testing and installing wiring, taking measurements and data management.

E. Travel. Funds are requested for travel for the research assistants and Co-Investigators to the field site.

G. Other Direct Costs. We request $9,000 annually for supplies to fund sampling equipment, electrical equipment and the electrical bill for warming the experimental plots.

The metaphor that is commonly used for the LTER program is that this funding provides the glue and motivation for holding long-term studies together and inspiring collaborative research (J.T. Callahan pers.comm.). This statement is certainly true for the Harvard Forest where an extremely active group of scientists undertakes a very wide range of site-based and cross-site comparative studies with support from essentially every major public funding agency in the US (see Current and Pending). In fact much of the specific research described for LTER III (e.g. paleoecology, hemlock woolly adelgid studies, regional sampling of N effects, etc.) will be accomplished through funding from other competitive grants as a broad calculation shows that HF LTER scientists bring additional funding to the program at a ratio of approximately 8:1. Thus, while the LTER funding provides absolutely essential support for long-term sampling, measurements, and data management, a tremendous amount of additional activity is leveraged from additional NSF, NASA, DoE, USDA, EPA, and other non-government sources such as A.W. Mellon Foundation and The Nature Conservancy. At the Harvard Forest such funding covers the activities of many individuals involved in LTER research including T. Parshall (Paleoecologist), D. Perez (Plant Ecologist), B. Hall (Historical GIS Ecologist), and S. Clayden, (Palynologist). In addition, the Summer Research program, which is a major educational component of the HF LTER program, is underwritten by funding from NSF REU, the Mellon Foundation, and Harvard University.

The HF LTER program receives strong support from each of the institutions and departments that collaborate on this program (i.e., Marine Biological Laboratory – Ecosystems Center, University of New Hampshire – Complex Systems Research Center, and Harvard University - Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Harvard Forest). In particular, the Harvard Forest provides the 3000-acre land base for the program, facilities for research, housing, and public as well as formal education, and personnel involved in many of the research, educational, and administrative activities described in this proposal, including: D.R. Foster (Director), D. A. Orwig (Foster Ecologist), G. Motzkin (Plant Ecologist), J. O’Keefe (Museum Coordinator), J. Pallant (Assistant Data Manager), E. Ellin (Administrator), J. Bowlen (Accountant), D. Recos Smith (Secretary), J. Burk (Archivist), B. Flye (Librarian), and J. Edwards (Forest Manager). In addition, graduate student involvement in LTER activities is supported by the Master’s and Ph.D. programs at Harvard University.