Cedar Creek Bog, Minnesota (45°24'North, 93°12' West), home to the Cedar Creek Natural History Area and Cedar Bog Lake, is considered one of the birthplaces of ecosystem ecology and ecological energetics. It was here that Raymond Lindeman performed field research that produced the first theoretical model of nutrient cycling expressed explicitly in terms of energy flows symbolized by mathematical equations.
Cedar Creek is 35 miles north of the Twin Cities near Isanti, Minnesota, and is owned and operated by the University of Minnesota in collaboration with the Minnesota Academy of Science. Cedar Bog Lake is all that remains of an ancient lake that occupied this area during the glacial period. The joining of the three largest ecosystems in North America occurs within a nine square mile area of the Cedar Creek Natural History Area. These ecosystems include western prairies, northern evergreen forests and eastern leafy forests, creating a unique geographic confluence of different plants and animals
Lindeman’s PhD research at Cedar Creek lasted five years. He introduced the concept of the ecological efficiency of energy transfer, namely the efficiency with which energy is transferred from lower to higher tropic levels. The study of energy flows in ecosystems, including food chains, food webs, and ecological pyramids, is now a cornerstone of community and ecosystem ecology.
Current research at Cedar Creek, built upon Lindeman's theories, focuses on the effects of human-induced ecosystem change. The effects of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, increased fertilization of the land, and biodiversity losses are being studied. Leading ecologists, such as David Tilman and Peter Reich, continue to use Cedar Creek as a basis for their research.
- Cedar Creek Natural History Area (University of Minnesota site)
- Lindeman, Raymond L. "The Trophic-Dynamic Aspect of Ecology". Ecology, Vol. 23, No. 4. (Oct., 1942), pp. 399-417.