Facilities

The Rutgers University Pinelands Research Station is located off of Four Mile Road in Lebanon State Forest. The facilities consist of the main building and four additional buildings. The main building is primarily used as office, however, it also serves a dormitory space for up to four residents. The research station also has two fully equipped laboratory buildings, a teaching/dormitory facility, and a large garage, which houses an environmental growth chamber and is used for storage of equipment and supplies. A small greenhouse is also attached to the teaching/dormitory building.

General Information

The research station offers easy access to a wide range of characteristic pineland ecosystems, including pygmy pine forests, upland and lowland pine/oak communities, cedar swamps and aquatic and semi-aquatic habitats. The unique combination of sandy, acid soils, fire and hydrology create a wonderfully rich mosaic of plant and animal communities available for research. Current research topics at the research station include: biogeochemical cycling in soil and freshwater systems, the role of mycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungi in ecosystem functioning, studies of soil fauna, and an emphasis on human impacts on ecosystems. A weather station is located on the property and climatological records from 1989 are available upon request.

Main Building

The main building contains office space to accommodate 6-8 permanent and temporary researchers. The building is equipped with central heating and air conditioning. Researchers have access to networked PCs, printers and a scanner. Access to the internet is available to the main campuses. There is also a small library, telephones, fax machine and photocopier. The library also serves as a conference/seminar room and is capable of holding about 15-20 people. It contains many books on the ecology of the local area and several current journals, including Mycological Research and Mycologia. The building also has a fully equipped kitchen, with sink, stove/oven, refrigerator and microwave oven.

Cabin

The cabin pictured here is occupied by Ken Clark of the Forest Service and his team (see associated faculty).

The Ralph E. Good Dormitory

Thanks to NSF for a Field Station Improvement Grant we have completed installation of a new dormitory building, constructed by Williams Scotsman. At a dedication ceremony on May 26 2005, the dormitory was officially opened and named as the Ralph E. Good Dormitory in memory of the former station director. IKEA Philadelphia kindly donated four bunk beds, so we are now set to accommodate up to 15 people distributed between four bedrooms

If you would like to visit the station to lead a course or to conduct research, we would be delighted to accommodate you and your students. Please arrange your visit by contacting either John Dighton (609-894-8849; dighton@camden.rutgers.edu) or Dennis Gray (609-894-8849; gray@imcs.rutgers.edu) .

Fees for dormitory use are $ 10.00 per person per night. Please bring your own linens. We have a small kitchen in the main office and are planning to purchase some gas grills for use by visitors. We will happily steer you towards local restaurants, supermarkets and the local convenience store.

Laboratory Facilities

The laboratories are housed in two trailers. The first trailer (Murray F. Buell lab) has areas for handling and processing of field collected samples, chemical analyses, and storage. It is equipped with ample bench space, an autoclave, two drying ovens, a muffle furnace, electronic balances, block digesters, ventilation hoods, a liquid scintillation counter, an ion chromatograph, a spectrophotometer, an incubator, and refrigerators and freezers.

The second trailer houses a clean room for microscopy and fungal culture, a molecular lab, and general bench and storage space. It is equipped with stereoscopic microscopes (one with camera attachment), compound microscopes, a laminar flow hood, two small environmental chambers, microcentrifuge, a PCR machine, gel apparatus, a shaker table, refrigerators and freezers.

A Jeep, Subaru Forester and a small boat are available for field work, together with a range of field apparatus including soil corers/augers, measuring tapes, quadrats

Greenhouse & Growth Chambers

A small 8 x 5 m plastic sheet-covered greenhouse is available for research use by students, faculty and field station staff. It has approximately 25 m2 of bench area. Automatic watering, supplemental lighting and temperature control are available. The station also has one large and two small environmental growth chambers. The large chamber is equipped with light, temperature and humidity control. The small chambers are light and temperature controlled.

New Station Vehicle

Thanks to Subaru, we have a new Forester for field work. As you may notice the vehicle has the fungal theme that underlies much of our research and the two recent books that have come out of the station (Fungi in Ecosystem Processes and The Fungal Community: Its Organization and Role in the Ecosystems: 3rd Edition). Subaru has a strong environmental policy and we are pleased to be developing links with them to provide environmental and ecological education and hand-on research activities for the staff in Subaru USA Headquarters in Cherry Hill.

John Dighton (right) receiving the car from the CEO and CFO of Subaru USA (center) with Jonathan Boiskin (Rutgers Camden Development Officer; left).