Within its borders lies Cedar Bog Lake, where some 80 years ago Raymond Lindeman transformed the science of ecology. Decades later, its fields became the laboratory where David Tilman unmasked the central role of biodiversity in ecosystem health.
Now known as the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, this 2,200-hectare crown jewel of ecological research is a field station of the University of Minnesota’s College of Biological Sciences. Located an hour’s drive north of the Twin Cities, Cedar Creek has long been a magnet for the world’s top ecology researchers and students.
Recently, Cedar Creek celebrated the eighth renewal of its National Science Foundation funding, meaning six more years of support. Besides this steady funding, Cedar Creek’s standing is evidenced by the presence of scientists like Tilman—a Regents Professor of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior and the world’s most cited ecologist—and the fact that on an average day, 95 publications cite research performed there.
Cedar Creek is one of 27 sites around the globe supported through the National Science Foundation’s Long-Term Ecological Research Network (LTER).
“The LTER is the research grant that pays for some of our highest-profile experiments,” says Eric Seabloom, interim director of Cedar Creek.
Worldwide research network
A major thrust of work at Cedar Creek is learning to predict how ecosystems will respond to, and recover from, disturbances such as fire, loss of biodiversity, an oversupply of nutrients, and the warming climate.
The new funding will be used to create a framework linking the most important long-term projects that move science closer to this goal.
Some of the experiments will follow the natural soil and vegetation changes in post-agricultural “old fields.” In others, plots containing varying numbers of prairie plants will be subject to treatments that mimic the various disturbances listed above.
“These studies have a lot of potential to complement each other to provide new insights,” says Seabloom.
“Long-term research is like a time machine,” says Elizabeth Borer, a Regents Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. “Long-term studies don’t just track trends—they reveal unexpected shifts and surprises that reshape scientific understanding.”
A startling example of this phenomenon occurred in 1988, when Tilman was studying plots of land planted with between one and 16 randomly selected species of prairie plants. That year, a severe drought wiped out most of the biomass in plots with only one species. But increasing amounts of biomass survived in plots with 2, 4, 8, and 16 species.
Nature could not have made a more definite statement about the importance of plant species diversity. If the experiment had been run for only one season, the lesson would have been missed.
With future experiments, scientists can expect more progress of similar caliber.
“Because the studies and data sets span decades, they can answer questions that weren’t even imaginable when the work began,” Borer notes.
Check out Cedar Creek’s Minnesota Ecology Walk
Learn about the many ways you can support the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve
This story is adapted from a College of Biological Sciences post
- Categories:
- Science and Technology
- Science
