LTER Network News | June 2020

June 2020

LTER Network News is a forum for sharing news and activities from across the LTER Network. This is our water cooler. If you have personnel changes, new grants, or cross-Network activities that might interest your LTER colleagues, please send them along to weiss@nceas.ucsb.edu.

The LTER Network Office has curated a list of anti-racism resources & actions focused on ecology and academia. We hope this provides a jumping off point for individuals, programs, and departments actively working to promote diversity and inclusion in science. If you have resources to add, please email dows@nceas.ucsb.edu. You can also read our full statement in support of racial equality in academia and beyond.

As the reinvigorated Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee expands network-wide activities, we’ll be highlighting a new diversity resource in this space each month.

The ADVANCEGeo partnership has curated a valuable list of resources to help the research community implement diversity and inclusion practices in the field, lab, and virtual spaces. The site includes advice on drafting codes of conduct, responding to hostile behaviors, recognizing bias, reporting harassment, and more

This month we feature a Q&A with Allison Swartz, a grad student representative from H.J. Andrews Experimental forest who studies the connection between forest canopy structure and aquatic ecosystem processes. Be sure to also check out the latest submissions to the LTER Grad Student blog and posts from grad student takeovers on our LTER Instagram account.

Congratulations to Andrew Myers of Kellogg Biological Station LTER, who won this year’s Reviewers’ Choice first runner-up paper in the journal Environmental Entomology for the paper “Habitat Type Influences Danaus plexippus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) Oviposition and Egg Survival on Asclepias syriaca (Gentianales: Apocynaceae)”.

Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER’s Director’s Blog features stories this month from guest bloggers Dr. Charles Nilon and Dr. Ela-Sita Carpenter about birding while Black in Baltimore. BES LTER also hosted a virtual Data Jam with the theme Accessible Science.

Alaska Ocean Acidification Network recently interviewed Arley Muth, a Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystems LTER scientist working on the Boulder Patch area east of Prudhoe Bay to study seasonal levels of pH among other ecological questions.

A new college-level lesson plan created by Harvard Forest LTER Research Associate Meghan MacLean uses the New England Landscape Futures Explorer tool to help students explore the connections between land-use decisions and land-cover change into the future.

This Friday, June 26th, the LTER Network Office is hosting our third Virtual Career Panel webinar featuring panelists in science communication and outreach professions. We invite LTER graduate and REU students and other early career researchers interested in learning about careers outside of traditional academia to join!

Ecological Society of America 2020 Annual Meeting (Virtual), August 3-6, 2020. ESA’s meeting theme this year is harnessing the ecological data revolution. Stay tuned for a list of LTER sessions, presentations and other events connected to the meeting.

National Diversity in STEM Conference, October 22-24, 2020, hosted by the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). Student research presentation applications due July 10, 2020.

The Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union is scheduled for December 7-11, 2020.as a mainly virtual meeting. Abstract submissions are open June 22 – July 29, 2020.

From the National Science Foundation

• Ocean research in the time of COVID-19: Expedition to the Gulf of Alaska keeps vital research and data collection on course
• Patterns in permafrost soils could help climate change models
• Small Arctic coastal waterbodies, with big carbon release

Other media

• Ground Control: How forests adapt to climate change  |  Harper’s Magazine
• The ground is softening. Something is shifting in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys | Massive Science
• Monarch research takes flight in a social distancing world | MSU College of Agriculture & Natural Resources News
• ‘We have one Earth’: Researchers Work To Boost Farm Production Without Causing More Harm | WVIK
• Pandemic Disrupts Colorado-Based Research In Antarctica | Colorado Public Radio
• Shorter, warmer winters, less snow. What next? | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• Long-term Ecological Reflections: Art + Science at Bonanza Creek, Alaska | Terrain
• Mo’orea: Coral Reef Research in Paradise | The Current

The most recent LTER-related papers are available on the LTER Network web site and the full Network bibliography is available at the LTER Network Zotero Group Library. Listed here is just a small sampling of the 30-40 LTER related papers that are published each month.

• Accounting for Carbon Flux to Mycorrhizal Fungi May Resolve Discrepancies in Forest Carbon Budgets  |  Ecosystems
• Microbial processing of plant remains is co‐limited by multiple nutrients in global grasslands | Global Change Biology
• Strong mineralogic control of soil organic matter composition in response to nutrient addition across diverse grassland sites | Science of the Total Environment
• Decreased Soil Organic Matter in a Long‐Term Soil Warming Experiment Lowers Soil Water Holding Capacity and Affects Soil Thermal and Hydrological Buffering  |  JGR Biogeoscience
• Seepage Erosion in the Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico, Relict Landscapes | JGR Earth Landscapes
• LINX I and II: Lessons Learned and Emerging Questions  |  Frontiers in Environmental Science
• Growing-season length and soil microbes influence the performance of a generalist bunchgrass beyond its current range | Ecology
• Lakes at Risk of Chloride Contamination | Environmental Science & Technology
• Factors shaping alternate successional trajectories in burned black spruce forests of Alaska | Ecosphere
• Distribution of n-alkanes and their delta H-2 and delta C-13 values in typical plants along a terrestrial-coastal-oceanic gradient | Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

• Faculty Early Career Development Program  (CAREER). Full proposal due: August 11, 2020
• Coastlines and People Hubs for Research and Broadening Participation (CoPe). Letter of Intent due: August 10, 2020. Full Proposal due: September 9, 2020
• Disaster Resilience Research Grants  (DRRG). Letter of Intent due: August 14, 2020. Full proposal due: September 15 2020
• Biological Oceanography, Chemical Oceanography and Physical Oceanography. Full proposal due: August 17, 2020
• Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU). Full proposal due: August 26, 2020
• NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowships. Full proposal due: September 9, 2020
• Science of Science: Discovery, Communication, and Impact. Full proposal due: September 9, 2020
• ADVANCE: Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions. Letter of Intent due: November 3, 2020

• Postdoctoral Research Position in ecological modelling (Job ID: Job ID: 604696) |  Northern Arizona University, with some work at Sevilleta LTER
• Graduate Student Position in population and community ecology | Kansas State University and Konza LTER
• Postdoctoral Research Position in ecosystem science | Arizona State University and Jornada LTER