Biogeochemistry, the watershed approach: some uses and limitations

The watershed (catchment) approach provides a powerful conceptual model for quantitatively evaluating the structure, function and change within a landscape or region. The values and limitations of this approach are considered in this paper, with particular reference to the Hubbard Brook watershed–ecosystem model. The need for informed long-term (sustained) research is stressed; a haphazard collection of data is rarely valuable. Team-building efforts will be needed increasingly in the future to enhance the success of multidisciplinary teams tackling large and complex environmental problems.

[1]  S. Pickett,et al.  Interdisciplinary Research: Maintaining the Constructive Impulse in a Culture of Criticism , 1999, Ecosystems.

[2]  Monica G. Turner,et al.  Tips and Traps in Interdisciplinary Research , 1999, Ecosystems.

[3]  G. Likens.  The Science of Nature, the Nature of Science: Long-Term Ecological Studies at Hubbard Brook , 1999 .

[4]  Gene E. Likens,et al.  Limitations to Intellectual Progress in Ecosystem Science , 1998 .

[5]  G. Likens,et al.  The biogeochemistry of calcium at Hubbard Brook , 1998 .

[6]  H. Mooney,et al.  Human Domination of Earth’s Ecosystems , 1997, Renewable Energy.

[7]  Gene E. Likens,et al.  Long-Term Effects of Acid Rain: Response and Recovery of a Forest Ecosystem , 1996, Science.

[8]  C. Driscoll,et al.  Calcium inputs and transport in a base-poor forest ecosystem as interpreted by Sr isotopes , 1996 .

[9]  Paul R. Ehrlich,et al.  Human Appropriation of Renewable Fresh Water , 1996, Science.

[10]  Mark B. David,et al.  A new mechanism for calcium loss in forest-floor soils , 1995, Nature.

[11]  Juan J. Armesto,et al.  Patterns of Nutrient Loss from Unpolluted, Old‐Growth Temperate Forests: Evaluation of Biogeochemical Theory , 1995 .

[12]  P. Vitousek.  Beyond Global Warming: Ecology and Global Change , 1994 .

[13]  Gene E. Likens,et al.  Integrated Regional Models , 1993, Springer US.

[14]  Andrew J. Friedland,et al.  Determination of soil exchangeable-cation loss and weathering rates using Sr isotopes , 1993, Nature.

[15]  J. Kirchner.  Heterogeneous geochemistry of catchment acidification , 1992 .

[16]  G. Likens.  Human-accelerated environmental change , 1991 .

[17]  J. Magnuson.  Long-Term Ecological Research and the Invisible Present , 1990 .

[18]  Jerry F. Franklin,et al.  Contributions of the Long-Term Ecological Research Program , 1990 .

[19]  J. Gosz,et al.  Boundary dynamics: a conceptual framework for studying landscape ecosystems , 1985 .

[20]  D. Schindler,et al.  Long-Term Ecosystem Stress: The Effects of Years of Experimental Acidification on a Small Lake , 1985, Science.

[21]  Gene E. Likens,et al.  An Ecosystem Approach , 1985 .

[22]  J. T. Callahan.  Long-Term Ecological Research , 1984 .

[23]  G. Likens,et al.  Pattern and process in a forested ecosystem. , 1979 .

[24]  A. Edwards.  Dissolved load and tentative solute budgets of some Norfolk catchments , 1973 .