The Ecosystems Center
"The Ecosystems Center was founded four decades ago to investigate the structure and functioning of ecological systems and to predict their response to changing environmental conditions. At that time the changing global carbon cycle was just becoming recognized as an urgent environmental issue and became one of the focal points for research at the Center."
--Anne Giblin, Ecosystems Center Director
In the News
SES Students Brave the Rain for Science | The Well
Science never stops, even for the weather.
When heavy rains hit Cape Cod last week, students in the MBL’s Semester in Environmental Science (SES) program didn’t let a little bad weather stop them. They headed out to Little Sippewissett Marsh in Falmouth, Mass., to collect sediment samples for...
Not a Moment Too Soon: Ecologists Flock to Arctic Field Station | The Well
Environmental scientists couldn’t wait to get back to work this year after having to sacrifice precious field time in 2020 due to pandemic shutdowns. At Toolik Field Station in arctic Alaska, the summer field season is brief and intense: Scientists flock there to take advantage of 24-hour light...
U.S. Department of Energy Funds Innovative Study of Carbon Cycling in Coastal Ecosystems | The Well
With a new collaborative grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), MBL Research Scientist Inke Forbrich will lead a project to study hydrological and biological controls on carbon cycling in coastal wetlands.
Climate Change is Already Disrupting US Forests and Coasts | The Conversation
Record-breaking heat waves and drought have left West Coast rivers lethally hot for salmon, literally cooked millions of mussels and clams in their shells and left forests primed to burn. The extraordinary severity of 2021’s heat and drought, and its fires and floods, has many people questioning...
Five New Faculty to Arrive, Expanding MBL’s Resident Science Program
The MBL is growing. Three new scientists are joining the Ecosystems Center over the next year, and two more will join the Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution.