Awards

The goods and services provided by coastal marine ecosystems greatly benefit society, but their sustainability is uncertain due to increasing threats from coastal development, pollution, fishing, and changing climate. Long-term ecological studies of these important ecosystems are necessary for understanding the consequences of such threats and how to mitigate them. Focusing on key “foundation species”… Read more »

The goods and services provided by coastal oceanic ecosystems greatly benefit society, but their sustainability is increasingly threatened by coastal development, pollution, fishing, and changing climate. Long-term ecological studies of these important ecosystems are necessary for understanding the consequences of such threats and how to mitigate them. Focusing on key “foundation species” that create habitat… Read more »

The Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico is a 100,000 ha transitional area including Great Basin, Great Plains, Chihuahuan Desert and Mogollon conifer woodland biomes. Steep climatological, elevational, and edaphic gradients within the site regulate biotic responses which, in turn, are mediated by threshold effects of resource availability. Consequently, the Sevilleta is ideal for… Read more »

DEB9411976 MILNE The Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research Program (LTER) is designed to address a suite of ecological hypotheses concerning climate dynamics and the responses of organisms in a biome transition zone in central New Mexico. The Sevilleta straddles several major biomes of the Southwest, including the Great Basin, Great Plains, and Chihuahuan Desert, and is… Read more »

The Sevilleta Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Program, established in 1988, conducts research on ecological processes and responses to climate dynamics in a biome transition zone in central New Mexico. The major research site is the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, operated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The multi-disciplinary research group comprises 34 scientists… Read more »

The Sevilleta LTER (SEV) research site is located on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, where a junction of four biomes (Great Plains Grassland, Great Basin Shrub-steppe, Chihuahuan Desert and Montane Coniferous Forest) provides a rich assortment of Biome Transition Zones (BTZs). Interacting with a highly variable climate, elevational range, complex topography,… Read more »

Sevilleta LTER (SEV) proposes to continue and expand long-term research in arid land ecology in and around the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. Although it is axiomatic that water is the key limiting resource in aridland ecosystems, most arid land soils are also chronically low in nutrients and organic matter. Nutrient availability is a function of… Read more »

This award continues funding the long-term research program in aridland ecology. The research is to understand how the physical environment and climate variability together affect common species, community dynamics and ecosystem processes in the northern Chihuahuan Desert. The Sevilleta LTER Program addresses ecological concepts and theory emphasizing pulse driven processes in space and time through… Read more »

Arid-land ecosystems cover more than 40% of continental land area of the Earth. They support local economies comprised of ranchers, farmers, and pastoralists around the world. Transitions from grass- to shrub-dominated communities are increasing in frequency, threatening human well-being and these economies in both developed and developing countries. This long-term project explores the diverse mechanisms… Read more »

Arid areas, which already comprise more than 40% of land on earth, are expanding in many places. Yearly differences in climate greatly affect the ecology and evolution of plants and animals in these drylands. The Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in New Mexico includes five major dryland habitats or ecosystems. This research will expand… Read more »