Likens Elected to 
Royal Swedish 
Academy 
Dr. Gene E. Likens, Director of the 
Institute of Ecosystem Studies, was 
recently elected a Foreign Member in the 
class for Botany of the Royal Swedish 
Academy of Sciences. Dr. Likens was 
notified of this honor in March 1988 by 
Academy Secretary General Professor 
Tord Ganelius. 
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 
is an independent, non-governmental 
organization that was founded in 1739 to 
promote mathematics and the natural 
sciences. It achieves its aims through six 
institutes, each with a different area of 
focus, through international scientific 
exchange programs, and through 
publications and informational activities. 
The Academy also awards research grants 
and prizes; perhaps the most well known 
of the latter are the annual Nobel Prizes. 
The Academy has approximately 250 
Swedish members and a quota of 134 
foreign members. Of the foreign 
members, approximately one fourth are 
American. Being elected to an academy of 
this sort is one of the highest honors a 
scientist can achieve. Dr. Likens was 
elected to the U.S. National Academy of 
Sciences in 1981. 
New Staff 
JAMES DAVID HILL, research 
assistant II, is working for Dr. Charles 
Canham on the rights-of-way study (see 
page 1). He is involved with three major 
aspects of the project: doing an annual 
census of tagged seedlings in the research 
plots, selecting and preparing sites for a 
competition experiment, and surveying 
disturbances along rights-of-way. Mr. Hill 
has a bachelor of arts degree, cum laude, 
in biology from Hartwick College, and a 
master of science degree in botany from 
the University of New Hampshire. 
Workshop: Air Pollution and 
the Wilderness 
One purpose of the Clean Air Act is to 
prevent significant deterioration of air 
quality. Federal land managers in charge 
of wilderness areas need knowledge of 
possible air pollution effects when they 
review applications for construction of 
major new emission sources or for 
modification of existing sources, on 
neighboring lands. To help land managers 
knowledgeably screen the many requests 
for permits that they receive annually, the 
Institute of Ecosystem Studies and the 
U.S. Forest Service co-sponsored a 
workshop to achieve consensus on the 
levels of air pollution likely to damage 
sensitive ecosystems. The workshop, 
“Effects of Air Pollution on the 
Wilderness”, was held at the Institute 
from May 2-5, 1988. 
Planning for the workshop began when 
managers from the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture (USD A) Forest Service 
contacted IES director Dr. Gene E. Likens 
to ask for guidance on the question of 
pollutant levels. Dr. Likens, James G. 
Byrne and Douglas G. Fox of the Forest 
Service, with a steering committee, co- 
organized the workshop. Its goal was to 
develop the best possible estimates as to 
what levels of air pollution cause damage 
to wilderness ecosystems. The workshop 
brought together 40 specialists: scientists 
from Canada, Norway, Sweden, the 
United Kingdom and the United States, 
and U.S. Forest Service managers. The 
Institute was represented by Dr. Likens, 
an ecologist, Dr. Gary M. Lovett, a plant 
ecologist, and Dr. Michael L. Pace, an 
aquatic ecologist. These three scientists 
are actively involved in research on the 
effects of atmospheric pollution on local as 
well as global ecosystems. 
On the first day of the workshop IES 
scientists gave a primer for Forest Service 
managers, covering basic concepts of 
ecosystems, air pollution, and the effects 
of air pollution on terrestrial and aquatic 
ecosystems. The following day was 
devoted to a discussion of the regulations 
in the Clean Air Act and the Wilder- 
ness Act, and on the third and 
fourth days small working groups 
determined critical loading values for 
three pollutants - sulfur, nitrogen and 
ozone - in nine representative Class I 
wilderness areas (areas in which only very 
small increments of air pollution are 
allowed, under the Clean Air Act.) 
The group proposed a framework for 
classifying pollution levels for wilderness 
areas. Pollutant levels that fall below a 
“green line” - a defined range of values -- 
are acceptable, and permission can be 
granted to go ahead with building plans. 
Levels that rise above a “red line” will 
cause definite damage to the wilderness 
areas and permission for building will be 
denied. For those operations whose 
deposition levels lie within the “yellow 
zone”, with values above green but below 
red, permits will be delayed pending 
additional monitoring and research on the 
effects of the pollutants on the ecosystem. 
Workshop participants applied these 
guidelines to each of the nine wilderness 
areas to examine the consequences of such 
a scheme. The report will be published 
this summer and the guidelines put into 
operation by the Forest Service managers 
of the various Class I wilderness areas. It 
was informally agreed to meet again in ten 
years to review the research and 
reevaluate green line and red line values 
based on new information. 
Just one year ago, participants in the 
second IES Cary Conference, “Long- 
Term Studies in Ecology: Approaches and 
Alternatives,” drafted a statement about 
the critical need for sustained ecological 
research. This statement read, in part: 
Because they have common long-term 
goals, we propose a new partnership 
between scientists and resource 
managers ... Sustained ecological 
research supported by this new 
partnership can contribute significantly 
to the resolution of critical 
environmental problems. 
In the recent workshop on air pollution 
and wilderness areas, scientists and 
managers took an important step toward 
achieving this critical and effective 
partnership. 
Local Weather 
Data collected at the IES Weather Station provide background information for 
ecological research at the Institute and serve as a standard against which long-term 
trends in weather and air quality may be compared. 
March and April, 1988 
Highest temperature: 22.7°C (73°F) on March 24 
Lowest temperature: -14.4°C (6°F) on March 22 
Daily average temperature: 5.3°C (42°F) (Normal*: 4.9°C (41°F) 
Precipitation: 8.45 cm (3.32 in.) (Normal: 17.10 cm (6.73 in.) 
Average rainfall pH**: 4.17 
Strongest wind gust: 56 km/hr (35 m.p.h.) from the West on March 27 
Prevailing wind: Northwest (307°) Average wind speed: 10 km/hr (6 m.p.h.) 
* “Normal” values are taken from data collected for a 30 year period at the Millbrook School 
* ‘Degrees of acidity or alkalinity are indicated using a logarithmic pH scale. On the scale of 0-14, vinegar - an 
acid - has a pH of approximately 3, and “neutral” is 7.0. The pH of “Normal” rain is 5.6 or higher. 
