APEX was first funded by the National Science Foundation in 2004.  In the first year of funding, we implemented three water table treatments (i. a control plot, ii. a drought or lowered water table treatment, iii. a flooded or raised water table treatment) in a moderate rich fen located just outside the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest (BCEF).  Two soil warming treatments are replicated within each water table plot.  Since 2005, we have measured greenhouse gas, vegetation and hydrological responses to these climate manipulations. 

In 2007, we began expanding our experiment into two new sites in the BCEF, including a forested peat plateau underlain by permafrost as well as a collapse scar bog formed after permafrost thaw and thermokarst occurred several decades ago.  The APEX project is continuing to expand by testing other large-scale experimental approaches to studying controls on peatland carbon cycling, including rain-out shelters to mimic drought, as well as snow fences and snow removal/addition to alter snowpack dynamics.