Chapter 1: Experimental forests and ranges and their significance to this synthesis

Abstract

Experimental forests and ranges (EFRs) are a network of long-term, dedicated research sites that have been established nationwide by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (USFS), and include several collaborating research sites managed by other federal and state land management agencies (Adams et al. 2008, Lugo et al. 2006). Most were originally established to investigate the environmental effects of forest management practices, but, over time, many have become venues for long-term environmental monitoring and for investigations of fundamental ecological processes in these forests and the streams that drain them. Both federal and state water quality regulatory agencies potentially could use the research results produced at EFRs to provide a scientific basis for setting and enforcing regulations to protect the quality of the nation’s water resources.Although some state regulatory agencies have drawn upon EFR research results, this scientific resource has not been systematically used by the regulatory community despite its widespread recognition as a reliable source of relevant, peer-reviewed, scientific findings by the research and land management communities. This synthesis is a step toward facilitating use of science from EFRs by water quality regulatory agencies by informing them of existing research and monitoring that have been done at EFRs and by identifying what future investigations at EFRs could fill important regulatory science needs. The focus of this report is a question that is nationally important to water quality regulatory agencies: What are biological responses to stream nutrients?

Citation

Ryan, Douglas F. 2021. Chapter 1: Experimental forests and ranges and their significance to this synthesis. In: Ryan, Douglas F., ed. 2021. Biological responses to stream nutrients: a synthesis of science from experimental forests and ranges. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-981. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station: 1-13.