MINNESOTA—Research on the Forest Service’s Marcell Experimental Forest in northern Minnesota, “Spruce and Peatland Response Under Changing Environments,” or SPRUCE, was featured on CBS Mornings on Wednesday, April 20. Timed for the week of Earth Day, the segment included interviews with research hydrologist Stephen Sebestyen of the Northern Research Station and David Weston, a senior scientist with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

With funding from the Department of Energy, SPRUCE is the planet’s most ambitious climate change experiment. SPRUCE includes 10 chambers, each one 45 feet wide and 30 feet tall, in which scientists are testing the response of northern peatland ecosystems to varying levels of increased temperature and exposure to elevated carbon dioxide.

Peatlands occupy only 3% of the planet, yet they store as much as 30% of the carbon in terrestrial landscapes. The majority of the peat has been accumulated in cold, wet conditions for thousands of years; SPRUCE researchers explore how peatland and the organisms that live in peatland react to a wide range of warming conditions and elevated carbon dioxide concentrations.

Located near Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the Marcell Experimental Forest is a site of long-term ecosystem research. Formally established in 1962, the 2,800-acre experimental forest has been reserved for long-term research with the cooperation of the USDA Forest Service’s Chippewa National Forest, the state of Minnesota, Itasca County and a private landowner.