Discovery & Growth: 100 Years of Pioneering Plant Science

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VISIT BTI

Boyce Thompson Institute
533 Tower Rd, Ithaca, NY 14853
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📅 Event Details:
Our events are open to all, free of charge! Check here for RSVP links a couple weeks before the event to ensure your spot. Most events are casual, with attire specifics noted for special occasions.🚗 Transportation and Parking:
Daytime (7:30 am - 5 pm): Utilize Parkmobile lots for parking. Find locations here.
Evening (after 5 pm): Enjoy complimentary parking on campus, including the lot adjacent to our building.🚌 TCAT Bus to BTI
TCAT buses serve the Boyce Thompson Institute, stopping directly in front of our main entrance. This is an eco-friendly option for visitors, though be mindful of possible delays.
Plan: Google Maps for TCAT routes to BTI. Enter your start point and destination.
Fares: $1.50 for adults, $0.75 for eligible reduced fares. Exact change or Tcard swipes only. More fare info HERE
Note: Check TCAT’s website or Google Maps in advance for schedules and possible changes.♿ Accessibility:
Our venue welcomes everyone, featuring a wheelchair-friendly entrance and ADA-compliant facilities. During Centennial events, the front door of BTI will be open. Please note: A key card is required to enter the building outside event times - Please contact communications@btiscience.org to coordinate your visit.✈️ Flight Information:
Ithaca Tompkins International Airport (ITH): Serviced by major airlines, including American, Delta, and United.
Alternative Airports: Consider Syracuse (SYR) or Elmira (ELM) for more flight choices.🏨 Accommodations:
The Canopy Hotel: BTI visitors receive special rates. Conveniently located downtown, ensuring a comfortable stay. Book now.🚖 Getting Around Ithaca:
Car Rentals: Choose from Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis, which are available both at the airport and downtown.
Taxi & Ride-Sharing: Ithaca Dispatch and Collegetown Cab, along with Uber and Lyft, provide round-the-clock service.
Public Transportation: TCAT buses offer an eco-friendly way to explore Ithaca and Tompkins County.🌳 Discover Ithaca, NY:
Immerse yourself in the area's natural beauty and cultural offerings:
Cornell University: Visit the campus, Botanic Gardens, and Johnson Museum of Art.
Ithaca Commons: The city's vibrant hub, filled with shops, eateries, and entertainment.
Cayuga Lake & Wine Trail: Enjoy water sports and local wines.
State Parks: Explore Taughannock and Buttermilk Falls for outdoor adventures.
Sciencenter & Farmers Market: Perfect for family entertainment and local flavors.Contact Us:
For more information or assistance, please reach out via email, or follow us on social media.

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Centennial Stories

Our centennial celebration has been a chance for past and present members of the BTI community to reflect on their time at the Institute. Enjoy these stories that have been shared with us!
To submit your own BTI memory, please email communications@btiscience.org

Bob Kohut

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Bob Kohut

Response of Plants to Interacting Stress (ROPIS) Project

Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska

Oral History Project

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Response of Plants to Interacting Stress (ROPIS)

The Response of Plants to Interacting Stress (ROPIS) project was the single largest and most expensive research effort in the Environmental Biology Program. The picture of the field crew putting the plastic on the chambers gives you an idea of their size; this was al “All Hands” evolution.Due to the complexity of the construction process, the chambers were assembled at the BTI field research site but away from the specific locations at which they were to be used. They were so large and heavy that a helicopter was used to move them onto the field sites where the ozone and acid rain exposures would take place.The project was named ROPIS (Response of Plants to Interacting Stress) and ran from 1986 through 1991. It was funded by The Electric Power Research Institute, The Empire State Electric Energy Research Corporation, and the US Forest Service with an overall budget of about $4 million.The problem that drove the project was that red spruce trees in the Adirondacks in NY and the Red and White Mountains in NH and VT were declining from some unknown stresses. This was in the 1980s and ambient levels of ozone were high, and acid rain was also a concern.The study was designed to assess the individual and interactive effects of these two pollutants on the growth, physiology and nutrition of red spruce sapling trees. It also assessed the effects of acid rain on the chemistry of the soil in which the trees were growing.Red spruce saplings about 1 meter tall were obtained from near Millenocket, Maine, an area in which there were no reports of the trees being in decline. Trees were dug with a root ball of native soil that was kept as intact as possible. Trees and their root balls and native soil were placed into pots approximately 30” in diameter and 24” deep. The trees were placed into 18-wheeler trucks, driven overnight to the BTI field research site in Ithaca and unloaded by other Environmental Biology staff.The experiment used 12 chambers that were each 24 ft long (3 8-ft sections), 12 ft tall and 8 ft wide. Each chamber received one of four ozone treatment levels; 0.5X ambient, ambient, 1.5X ambient or 2.0X ambient Inside each chamber there were three sections, each section holding two red spruce trees in their pots. Each chamber had a top cover that could be drawn closed to exclude ambient rain.Each of the three 8 ft X 8 ft sections in a chamber received a different acid rain treatment at pH of 3.1, 4.1 or 5.1, and contained two trees in pots that were sunken to ground level in excavated holes. One pot rested on load cells so the tree, soil and soil water could be constantly weighed. This allowed us to know how much rain was applied, how the pot drained and how the tree used water by transpiration.That pot also had tension lysimeters buried at three depths in the soil profile so that water percolating through the soil profile could be collected for chemical analysis. Two cups were placed on top of the soil to collect water that had passed through the canopy of the trees.Thus, we were able to assess changes in chemistry from that of the rain we applied, to throughfall that had passed through the tree canopy, to how it changed as it moved through three depths of soil in the pot. Small samples of tree needles were also periodically obtained. Collectively, these samples allowed the complete cycle of precipitation biogeochemistry (rain applied, tree foliage, throughfall onto the soil, and soil water at three depths) to be assessed. This part of the study was conducted in collaboration with Natural Resources at Cornell.Rates of photosynthesis and respiration were regularly assessed for the trees. All trees were harvested (some at 3 years and all at 4 years) and biomass and nutrient composition assessed.Basically, the research showed that neither the ozone nor the acid rain produced a significant impact on the trees’ growth or physiology. Red spruce did not show the symptoms of decline that were observed in the field.

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Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska

The facility near which the study was conducted was known as the Central Compressor Plant (CCP). When oil came to the surface at the wellheads it had natural gas mixed with it. The gas was separated and piped to the CCP where some was used as fuel to generate electricity for all the oil field. The rest of the gas was compressed and injected back into the ground. The injected gas was used to drive the underground oil through the rock strata toward wellheads where the oil was brought to the surface.Tundra ecosystems are generally low in nitrogen so there was some concern about whether the oxides of nitrogen in the exhaust from the gas compressor plant was introducing enough nitrogen to the near-by tundra to alter the vegetation there. We conducted a 5-year assessment of tundra vegetation along a dispersion gradient of about 3 miles from the compressor plant to determine whether impacts were occurring. We found no effects on the physiology of the plants we examined or on the composition of the plant communities on the assessment plots.One thing about Environmental Biology — I did not do much work hunched over a lab bench. Five years working at Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. Five years studying the effects of ozone on vegetation at Acadia National Park in Maine. A total of 10 years working at the BTI field site first studying the effects of ozone on agricultural crops and later the effects of ozone and acid rain on trees. Oh man, those were the days!!!!

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