Documents — 2017 NSF LTER Symposium (Discovering the Nature of Ecosystem Change)

How does shrinking sea-ice affect ecosystems along the Western Antarctic Peninsula?

Scott Doney (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), Hugh Ducklow Columbia University

& Palmer Station Antarctica LTER Team (http://pal.lter.edu)

Presnted at the 2017 NSF-LTER symposium, March 21, 2107

Coastal wetlands respond differently to increasing salinity. Why?

Kelp forests as sentinels of ecosystem change? 2014-2015 heatwaves offer a test.

Dan Reed, Libe Washburn, Andrew Rassweiler, Robert Miller, Tom Bell and Shannon Harrer

Santa Barbara Coastal LTER, Marine Science Institute, University of California Santa Barbara

Poster presented at NSF-LTER Symposium, March 21, 2017

Occurrence and Potential Biological Effects of Amphetamine on Stream Communities

Sylvia Lee, Alexis Borbon, Daniel Snow, Emma Rosi , John Kelly, and Erinn Richmond

Poster presented at NSF-LTER Symposium, March 21, 2017

Documenting, Describing, and Mapping Environmental Changes Influencing Human Travel and Access in Boreal Alaska

Todd J. Brinkman, Helen Cold, Teresa Hollingsworth, Caroline Brown, Dana Brown, Dave Verbyla, Terry Chapin

Poster presented at the NSF-LTER symposium, March 21, 2017

LTER Network poster presented at the NSF symposium, March 21, 2017

Scenarios can help communities think about alternative futures, but using them to drive decisions requires dat

Air pollution control efforts have succeeded in reducing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, but decades of acid rain have leached calcium and magnesium from Northeastern forest soils. These changes have increased the mobility of dissolved organic matter, and possibly altered soil organic matter dynamics, altering the long-term trajectory for forest ecosystems. What does the acid rain story say about when, where, and how recovery is possible?

About 30% of global carbon stocks reside in the vegetation and deep, carbon-rich soils of Arctic tundra and boreal forest biomes. Wildfires—which are becoming more frequent with warmer and drier weather in the Arctic—have the potential to either stabilize or accelerate regional and global warming through carbon feedbacks.

One of the classic state-change stories is that over-grazing and drought turn grasslands into shrubby, degraded landscapes. Land managers strive to avoid such irreversible changes, using strategies based on models of how ecosystems change. But misapplication of models can lead to poor management outcomes. Researchers at the Jornada Basin LTER site and its host the USDA Jornada Experimental Range have developed a new model of desert grassland ecosystem dynamics that is grounded in long-term data and experiments indicating possible trajectories.

Introduction to the 2017 LTER Symposium at NSF, but Executive Board Chair Peter Groffman.

Coastal habitats are the first line of defense against sea-level rise and storms. At the same time, they are vulnerable to change, and can be pushed past tipping points and lost. A long-term, landscape-scale experiment with seagrass at Virginia Coast Reserve LTER is the first of its kind to show the role of restoration in reinstating ecosystem services, particularly ‘blue carbon’ sequestration.