They say if you don't like the weather in New England, wait a few minutes.
But when Jeff Dukes turns on his Boston Area Climate Experiment, visitors craving warmer temperatures will be able to simply walk a few steps down a row of climate controlled soil plots.
After more than a year of building greenhouse structures on an old farm on Beaver Street, Dukes is almost ready to begin a four-year project monitoring a dozen different climates he said is likely to occur over the next several years as a result of global warming.
"When you walk down the row here you'll be able to walk into the future," Dukes said yesterday afternoon, offering a tour of the agricultural study site at 240 Beaver St.
Dukes is an assistant professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Walking past rows of soil plots Dukes explained how his experiment will mimic possible future climates and allow scientists to measure how they affect vegetation.
Small orange flags are scattered over 36 plots of land - each four square meters - where Dukes will be planting tree seedlings and wildflowers. Sectioned into groups of four, the plots are accompanied by ceramic heaters that will act to increase temperature. Overhead clear roofing panels and deer fencing are strategically placed to control rainfall.
Essentially, the Boston Area Climate Experiment will simulate climates at various combinations of wet, dry, cool and hot. The heaters will provide four different temperatures combined with three different levels of precipitation.
"Not too many projects have looked at warming and precipitation at the same time," Dukes said.
The experiment is federally funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Institute for Climate Change Research.
Dukes said he intended to spend about a year building the project and four more actually running the experiment. Though complications have put the construction stage just over a year now, Dukes said he will be ready to turn on the heaters in the next couple months.
"I know we're going to have expensive electric bills and there's really no way to get around that," Dukes said.
But Dukes is confident the project's benefits to science and educational opportunities for the general public will far outweigh the monetary costs.
Beside the rows where research scientists will be working is an area Dukes called a climate change classroom. Colorful boards with charts and graphics explain the premise behind the experiment along with key facts about climate change, ecosystems and greenhouse gases.
"This area is always open and I hope that people will come and use it," Dukes said.
Already Dukes' experiment has been attracting researchers around the nation. Yesterday Rich Conant, a research scientist from Colorado State University, helped set up some of the plots where he will be conducting a Department of Energy funded experiment of his own.
Conant said his work will focus on what happens to carbon embedded in soil when temperatures get warmer.
"We think the carbon in the soil is very sensitive to changes in temperature," Conant said. "What makes this (experiment) really unique is the different levels of warming."
Dukes said the experiment will help scientists research several questions, including how ecosystems will affect climate changes in the future. He said a quarter of the carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere is absorbed by natural ecosystems in the ground, in warmer soils the carbon is more quickly released back into the atmosphere. At the same time warmer soil will probably yield more plant growth.
"What we don't know is who's going to win ... whether ecosystems will actually speed up or slow down climate change," he said.
For more information about the experiment visit www.ecosystems.umb.edu. To contact Dukes about bringing classes to the project site, send emails to dukes@stanfordalumni.org.
Nicole Haley can be reached at nhaley@cnc.com or 781-398-8004.
