Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

RESEARCH AND EDUCATION FACILITIEs

LAND

The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies is an 836 haproperty in New York’s mid-Hudson Valley situated 113 km north of New York City. A wide range of topographic features and habitats provide a variety of potential research sites, including deciduous and mixed conifer forests, wetlands, floodplains, oldfields, and open meadows. Approximately 6 km of trout stream, along with a few small ponds, provide opportunities for aquatic studies. The Tompkins Farm property in the nearby town of Pleasant Valley and Clinton offers an additional 35ha of primarily young forest habitat for research. Restricted-access internal roads and trails make research sites easily accessible at both sites.

Environmental monitoring at the Institute includes event-based precipitation chemistry since 1983, ambient air quality,whose methods are similar to the National Monitoring network CASTNet, since 1988, ambient carbon dioxide concentration since 2009, solar radiation including shortwave (direct and diffuse), PAR (direct and diffuse) and net radiation since 1988 and UV-B (direct) since 1999, and standard meteorological measurements including air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction and precipitation amount since 1988. Stream water is monitored with monthly grab samples for chemical analyses as well as continuous (15 min) monitoring of stage height, water temperature and conductivity. ( The Cary Institute also hosts sites for three additional programs: The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Ambient Air Monitoring Program, since 1988, for ground level ozone; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN), since 2004, a program designed to provide long-term homogeneous observations of temperature and precipitation that can be coupled to historical observations for the detection and attribution of climate change; and the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) Passive Ammonia Monitoring Network, since 2009, for atmospheric ammonia monitoring.

The Cary Institute's regional atmospheric and precipitation chemistry research and monitoring site is located on Connecticut Hill, 15 km southwest of Ithaca, NY (42 24' lat., 76 39' long.), at an elevation of 503 m above sea level with 6.6 ha surrounded by deciduous forest, pasture, and old field. The site offers continuous monitoring of regional-scale daily precipitation chemistry (since 1977) as part of the NADP/AIRMoN network (site NY67) ( and since 1987 is part of the national atmospheric dry deposition network, CASTNet (site CTH 110) ( Data collection at the site includes daily precipitation amount and chemistry, continuous ozone, wind speed, wind direction, temperature at 2 and 10 m above ground, relative humidity, solar radiation, visibility, and weekly concentrations of SO2, particulate SO4=, NO3-, ammonium, and nitric acid vapor (

BUILDINGS

The Plant Science Building (3,066 m2) and the Gene E. Likens Laboratory (1,254 m2) house state-of-the-art analytical facilities for organic and inorganic chemical analyses.The library in the Plant Science Building provides access to over 1,000 journals and e-journals, more than 10,000 books and e-books,Web of Science, JSTOR and many online journals; a computer lab is located in the library for use by library patrons, students and visitors. Administrative offices, a classroom, two conference rooms, and meeting area that provide space for small workshops and conferences are also located in this building. Adjacent to the Plant Science Building is a 151-seat auditorium.

The Rearing Facility(217 m2) isused for temporarily housing animals during the field season and provides additional space for other research efforts. The building’s floor is concrete, with a drain in the middle,and is ventilated by fan exhaust on an exterior wall. The Rearing Facility Annex, located next to the Rearing Facility, provides an additional 25 m2 for temporaryanimal housing. TheCold Storage Building, which has two walk-in coolers(4.5 m2) and a cold storage room available for sample storage. The Head House has a large drying oven for bulk drying of plant and soil samples. The Greenhouse building has 4 glass houseunits (29 m2) available as unheated greenhouse space.

The Gifford House is located approximately 1 km east of the Plant Science Building. Two classrooms provide space for meetings, workshops, and classes. The adjacent Carriage House provides additional space for adult and children classes and school programs.

Other buildings provideadditional storage capacity, a Model TB 500 Grieve truck oven for drying of plant materials, a Prescott Pierson temperature-controlled cold chamber, carpentry and mechanical shops.Dormitory facilities are available to house visitors and students while in residence. On-site exercise and recreation facilities are available year-round.

EQUIPMENT

Analytical facilities at the Institute are stateoftheart and make possible a wide variety of new as well as ongoing research programs. The Cary Institute’s Rachel Carson Analytical Facility is serviced by a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and a Laboratory Document Management System (LDMS). Instrumentation includes: a PerkinElmer Analyst 300 atomic absorption spectrometer with graphite furnace,Leeman Labs Profile inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometer, CE ElantechFlash EA1112 Elemental Analyzer, Two Dionex ICS-2000 ion chromarographs,two high quality Shimadzu UVvisible dualbeam spectrophotometers, a LachatQuickChem 8000 FIA Ion Analyzer, a LachatQuickChem 8500 FIA Ion Analyzer and a Milestone Ethos EZ microwave digestion system. General use equipment includes aShimadzu TOC-V carbon analyzer, Perkin-Elmer LS-50 Luminescence Spectrophotometer and plate reader, Beckman LS6500 scintillation counter, a Turner Designs fluorometer, leaf area meter, optical microscopes, inverted microscope, fluorescence microscopes,glove box, an image analyzer, ultra-centrifuge, a FastPrep24 sample homogenizer, a freeze dryer, drying ovens, a rotary evaporator, laminar flow hood; incubators,ultra-low freezer,walk-in cold room, muffle furnace, soil processing equipment, sonicator, temperature baths, turbidimeter, platform shakers, electronic balances (including microbalances), pH meters, electrical conductivity meters and a PowderSafe 700 series ductless balance enclosure.

Additional instrumentation includes: a DionexUltiMate 3000 HPLC system with controller, photodiode array detector,UV-VIS detector, fluorescence detector, auto-sampler and Chromeleanchromatography analysis software, four Shimadzu model GC8 gas chromatographs, a Shimadzu model 14A gas chromatograph with thermal conductivity, flame ionization and electron-capture detectors and Tekmar-Dorhmann auto-sampler 7000, a Shimadzu model 14A gas chromatograph with TC detector, a Unisensemicrosensormultimeter,aLachatQuickChem 8000 FIA Ion Analyzer, a Milestone Ethos EZ microwave digestion system and a Lancer automatic labware washer.

The bio-safety level 2Molecular Ecology Laboratory (38.6 m2) (built in 2014)is divided into three separate labs,reagent prep, sample prep and instrument analysisrooms, witheach space designedt to prevent cross contamination. The Reagent Prep area (12.8 m2) is equipped with a four foot Thermo Scientific Series 1300 Class II Type A2 biological safety cabinet with thimble exhaust, Barnstead MicroPure UF/UV type I water purification system, Heratherm 100L AP Incubator, Promo legend Micro 21 micro-centrifuge, combination refrigerator/freezer, vortex mixer and electronic micro-pipetters. The Sample Prep area (12.8 m2) is equipped with a four foot Thermo Scientific Series 1300 Class II Type A2 biological safety cabinet with thimble exhaust, a three foot Thermo Scientific Series 1300 Class II Type A2 biological safety cabinet, Barnstead MicroPure UF/UV type I water purification system, Heratherm 100L AP Incubator, Sorvall Legend X1 centrifuge, SorvallPromo Legend Micro 21 micro-centrifuge, under counter refrigerator, under counter freezer, vortex mixer, vacuum pump and filtration apparatus and electronic micro-pipetters. The Instrument Analysis area (12.8 m2) is equipped with a three foot Fisher Scientific Class 5 PCR workstation, Applied Bio Systems 7500 real-time PCR system, Licor NEN Model 4300 DNA analyzer with e-Seq DNA Sequencing and Analysis software, AlignIR Assembly and Alignment software and computer, and a Shimadzu BioSpec-nano spectrophotometer.

Computers include Microsoft Windows file servers networked to numerous personal computers. Main buildings are firewall-protected and connected with fiber optics and broadband Internet. The gigabit speed computer network provides e-mail, printing, antivirus protection, file backup and a broadband connection to the Internet. Also available are a 6-station computer lab, scanner, 14 networked printers, geographical information system (GIS) with a PolyvisionEno One 2610 Smartboardand a HP DesignJet large-scale color printer.

The field laboratory includes a necropsy facility for animal examination. A variety of animal capturing and tagging equipment areavailable, as well as a freezing microtome. Two differential Global Positioning Systems (Trimble P Finder Pro and Trimble GeoExplorer 2500 with GeoBecon for RTDC) areavailable to provide meter scale locations, perimeter and area measurements.

Additionally, a fully equipped 19 ft Boston Whaler and two smaller boats are available for use on local lakes and the Hudson River.

Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites

The Cary Institute plays a lead role in two National Science Foundation-funded Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites:

  • The Cary Institute maintains a field research operation within facilities owned and operated by the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (HBRF) and the U.S. Forest Service Northeastern Research Station (USFS-NRS) at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in West Thornton, New Hampshire. The Pleasant View Farm Facility consists of a 200 m2 laboratory, dormitory, and storage building. Institute equipment located at this site includes: a small boat, a pickup truck, two snowmobiles, a Shimadzu gas chromatograph, a drying oven, pH meters, a conductivity meter, an Orion Auto-Titrator, oxygen meter, well-water pumps, GPS Receivers, computers, printers, scanners, etc.,as well as a wide variety of field sampling equipment and a portable generator. Housing for students and faculty is available at the Robert S. Pierce Ecosystem Laboratory, the Mirror Lake Hamlet and the Pleasant View Farm Facility operated by the U.S. Forest Service and the HBRF.
  • The Baltimore Ecosystem Study is an LTER site funded by a National Science Foundation grant to Cary Institute. The research is based in facilities on the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in support of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study. The space houses Cary Institute, U.S. Forest Service, and UMBC researchers and includes office, laboratory, and spatial analysis facilities. The facility services a network of stream, meteorological, and long-term study plot monitoring stations in and around the city of Baltimore.

Off-campus facilities

  • Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest Facilities

The 3,160 ha Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) is located in the Pemigewasset Ranger District of the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF), in West Thornton and North Woodstock, NH, immediately adjacent to Mirror Lake ( The USDA Forest Service acquired about 18 ha on the east and north shores of Mirror Lake to provide protection and research access to the Lake in 1988. Recently the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (HBRF) has acquired about 5 ha of land and housing units on the south shoreline of Mirror Lake for research and protection of lakeshoreline. There are 20 km of gravel roads within the Experimental Forest maintained by the WMNF. Two snowmobiles, 1 pickup truck, a 4WD SUV, 1 all-terrain vehicle and a 12 ft boat are available for access to research sites by Cary Institute personnel. A classA weather station, 25additional weather stations and 9 gauged watersheds are distributed throughout the Experimental Forest. A Clean Air Status and Trends Network (CASTNET) dry-deposition monitoring site (site WST-109) is operated by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies with funding from the EPA (

The USDA-Forest Service maintains an NADP NTN wet-only precipitation chemistry site at HBEF, in parallel with a Cary Institute bulk precipitation collector. The USDA Forest Service Northeastern Research Station (USFS-NRS) operates the Robert S. Pierce Ecosystem Laboratory (RSPEL), a year-round field laboratory and office building at HBEF. This laboratory provides 835 m2 of space, including 6 offices, 3 laboratories, 200-seat conference room, six 2-person dormitory rooms, a kitchen, bathrooms and showers. In the RSPEL, there are 12 linked microcomputers, fax/copy machine, 8 ink/laser jet printers, 3 scanners, and positions for up to 10 visitor computers throughout the complex. Hardwired, T1 internet connections are through the USFS-NRS network, or via wireless satellite dish communications provided by the HBRF.

A 200 m2building was constructed in 1990 to archive samples of water, soil, plant tissue, and other materials. There are currently about 31,000 samples of precipitation, stream water, and lake water (collected by Cary Institute personnel) dating back to 1968, cataloged and stored in the archive building.In addition, there are 280 m2 of maintenance, storage, garage and shop facilities on site.

Pleasant View Farm Facility

In 1983, Yale and Cornell Universities purchased Pleasant View Farm (PVF), a 200-yr-old complex which had been rented for 18 years for use by graduate students and senior researchers, working as part of the HBES. With the help of an NSF facilities grant, the farmhouse was renovated into a convenient and attractive dormitory building that can house 14-16 persons. In addition, a 2-bay garage and the 200 m2 Henrietta Kendall Towers Laboratory facility were constructed adjacent to the renovated farmhouse to provide research space for personnel. This housing and laboratory facility are 0.5 km from Mirror Lake and 1.6 km from the HBEF. Equipment in the Laboratory includes: a Techniconautoanalyzer, pH meters, a Shimadzu gas chromatograph, a Dionex ion chromatograph, drying ovens, spectrophotometers, conductivity meters, as well as distillation and deionizing equipment, along with refrigerators and deep freezer. A library of HBES publications and other relevant reference materials is maintained by the Cary Institute at PVF. Internet access via a T-1 line has been installed for use by students and senior researchers at PVF, and there are 5 microcomputers, 2 printers, and a fax machine in the facility. This field research facility was donated to the HBRF in 2000 and is operated and maintained by the HBRF in support of the HBES. Additionally, cabinets for acids and flammable chemicals, an eyewash and shower, ovens, balance, pH meter and a large fume hood areavailable in the Laboratory.

Mirror Lake Field Facilities

A continuous lake-stage recorder has been maintained on the outlet dam at Mirror Lake in the Hubbard Brook Valley since 1968. Since 1979, we have operated stream-gauging stations (Parshall flumes and water-level recorders) on the 3 primary inlets: NE, NW, and West. In 1990, a larger flume was installed below the lake outlet dam to facilitate more accurate surface outflow measurements during high flows, and a gauging station was built on a seepage stream below Mirror Lake Road to monitor sub-surface runoff. All of the gauging stations are heated and flows are measured continuously. There are 2 precipitation gauges at Mirror Lake: one located at the RSPEL, the other at PVF, both consisting of standard (volumetric) and recording instruments of the same type used within the HBEF. On the south shoreline of Mirror Lake there is a climate station with an analog hygrothermagraph, calibration thermometers, and a Campbell 21-X micro-logger with digital sensors that record relative humidity, air and lake surface-water temperatures hourly. There are 92 groundwater wells installed since 1979 by the USGS in the area around Mirror Lake, many of which were drilled to facilitate a study of bedrock fracture flow. Cary Institute personnel measure water levels in 3 bedrock bore-hole wells, 22 piezometers, and 25 water-table wells in this system every 2 weeks.

Research and Education Facilities: Rev 08/13/2014