Gene Elden Likens

Research interests are focused on long-term, multidisciplinary studies of forest, stream and lake ecosystems in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The objectives are to evaluate energy flow and biogeochemical fluxes for northern hardwood forest ecosystems and for a small lake. These studies are designed to delineate the biological, physical, and chemical parameters, and to assess the biological implications of human alterations of these ecosystems (e.g. clearcutting, fertilization, or acid rain). Experimental manipulations of entire ecosystems are used to evaluate these questions. Limnological investigations evaluate the effect of air pollution, forest cleaing, construction of an interstate highway and housing developments in the lake's watershed. He also studies effects of acid rain on natural ecosystems, evaluating the effect of human activities on historical changes in precipitation chemistry, the chemistry of precipitation in remote regions of the Southern Hemisphere, the chemistry of cloud water, and the ecology and biogeochemistry of aquatic ecosystems.