Andrews LTER
How do climate, natural disturbance, and land use, as influenced by forest governance, interact with biodiversity, hydrology, and carbon and nutrient dynamics?
Arctic LTER
Arctic (ARC) LTER uses long term monitoring and manipulations of temperature, nutrient inputs, and community structure to understand how tundra terrestrial, stream, and lake ecosystems respond to climate change and climate-induced disturbances such as wildfire and permafrost thawing. Recent research explores biogeochemical and community openness and connectivity as ways to describe and predict how climate related changes propagate across the landscape.
The Arctic LTER research site is in the foothills region of the North Slope of Alaska, which was opened to research with the construction of the Alaska oil pipeline and Haul Road (later named the Dalton Highway) in 1974- 1976. The site includes the entire Toolik Lake watershed and the adjacent watershed of the upper Kuparuk River. This area is typical of the northern foothills of the Brooks Range, with continuous permafrost, no trees, a complete snow cover for 7 to 9 months, winter ice cover on lakes, streams, and ocean, and cessation of river flow during the winter. Tussock tundra is the dominant vegetation type but there are extensive areas of drier heath tundra on ridge tops and other well-drained sites as well as areas of river-bottom willow communities.
Teachers will have the opportunity to contribute to research projects already underway and to develop side projects of their own design.
Potential project mentors at the Arctic LTER site include:
- Dr. Syndonia Bret-Harte, University of Alaska (terrestrial plants)
- Dr. Laura Gough, Towson University (terrestrial plants)
- Dr. Adrian Rocha, University of Notre Dame (terrestrial plants)
- Dr. William Bowden, University of Vermont (stream ecology)
- Dr. George Kling, University of Michigan (lake ecology)
- Elizabeth Herdon, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (metals, nutrients and carbon flux in aquatic and land systems)
Santa Barbara Coastal LTER
Santa Barbara Coastal (SBC) LTER focuses on giant kelp forests fringing the coast of the Santa Barbara Channel in semiarid southern California. Kelp forests are prominent on shallow reefs at the coastal margin in temperate regions of the world and are highly valued for their ecosystem goods and services. Research at SBC LTER is dedicated to understanding how oceanic and terrestrial processes alter material flows to influence the ecology of these iconic coastal systems.
In its first 19 years, SBC LTER has demonstrated the surprising resilience of giant kelp forests in the face of natural and human disturbance and the key role of dispersal and connectivity in driving that resilience. Through the combination of sustained measurements, long term experiments, satellite imagery, and modeling, SBC LTER is developing a mechanistic understanding of ecosystem structure and function and is poised to predict the impacts of climate change and human activities on kelp forest ecosystems.
Teachers will have the opportunity to contribute to research projects already underway and to develop side projects of their own design.
Potential project mentors at the Santa Barbara Coastal LTER site include:
- Dr. Gretchen Hofmann, UC Santa Barbara (impact of global change on marine ecosystems)
- Dr. Robert Miller, UC Santa Barbara (kelp forest ecology)
- Dr. Jenifer Dugan, UC Santa Barbara (beach ecology)
