Pardon me for sounding cynical but over the years I have become dubious about claims that art can bring science to the masses. It seems to me that translating the quantitative into the qualitative usually creates little insight for the general.
If we have no choice but to go through an ecological catastrophe, we might as well try to learn something from it.This is the idea behind a unique experiment in the Hubbard Brook Forest that will protect about 300 ash trees from the ravages of the.
It takes a lot of incentive to get people to go out into the woods and shift 15,000 kilograms (16.5 tons) of snow around by hand. Fortunately, scientific curiosity is a great incentive.Earlier this month, six people spent three days at Hubbard Brook.
Dartmouth biologist Matt Ayres stands on a path in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, near pink flags marking research areas. (Annie Ropeik/NHPR)
At the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in northern New Hampshire, the pandemic broke a decades-long streak of field research. Now, scientists there are adapting with new technology recording the sounds of the forest, which they hope will transform their long and influential record of a changing world.
In late fall, Dartmouth biologist Matt Ayres stands out in camouflage and cargo pants against the bright yellow of the woods. He s got binoculars around his neck, and he s loading gear from his truck into a backpack two kinds of batteries, microphones, GPS devices and more.
Editor s note: This is a story about sound. We highly recommend listening.
In late fall, Dartmouth biologist Matt Ayres stands out in camouflage and cargo pants against the bright yellow of the woods. He s got binoculars around his neck, and he s loading gear from his truck into a backpack – two kinds of batteries, microphones, GPS devices and more.
Matt Ayres unloads gear from his truck in Hubbard Brook.
Credit Annie Ropeik / NHPR
Ayres specialty is caterpillars and other insects, but today s he s here on a bird monitoring mission in this 12-square-mile research forest, created by the federal government on the southeast slopes of Mount Moosilauke in the 1950s.