Grant history of an LTER site
The Plum Island Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research (PIE LTER) site consists of a linked watershed-marsh-estuarine system connected to the Gulf of Maine. The goal of the PIE LTER is to advance our predictive understanding of the long-term response of coupled land-marsh-estuary-ocean ecosystems to changes in three key drivers: climate, sea level and human activities…. Read more »
This study will establish an LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) site in Santa Barbara, CA that will focus on ecological systems at the land/ocean-margin. This location is typical of many semi-arid regions in that it includes a large number of watersheds with episodic stream flow that vary in size and land use. The focal coastal ecosystem… Read more »
The Santa Barbara Coastal LTER (SBC LTER) is an interdisciplinary research and education program established in April, 2000 to investigate the relative importance of land and ocean processes in structuring ecosystems at the land-sea margin. The principal study area is the Santa Barbara Channel and the coastal watersheds that drain into it, and the focal… Read more »
The McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, are a mosaic of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in a cold desert. The McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) project has been observing these ecosystems since 1993 and this award will support key long-term measurements, manipulation experiments, synthesis, and modeling to test current theories on ecosystem structure and function. Data… Read more »
Coral reefs are of great ecological importance, having the highest species diversity of any marine habitat and ranking near the top of all ecosystems with respect to annual total gross productivity. The communities are supported structurally by reef-building corals and trophically by efficient recycling. The key biotic interaction underlying reef systems is the mutualistic relationship… Read more »
Intellectual Merit: The Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) LTER is an interdisciplinary research and education program that was established in 2004, to explore the joint effects of climate and disturbance on the structure and function of coral reefs. The study area is the reef complex that surrounds the island of Moorea in French Polynesia. The initial… Read more »
Intellectual Merit: The Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) LTER was established in 2004 to investigate community and ecosystem effects of pulsed perturbations and slowly changing environment from local and global stressors. The site is the coral reef complex surrounding the island of Moorea, French Polynesia, which includes a lagoon system (with fringing reef and back reef… Read more »
Coral reefs have enormous ecological, economic and cultural value, but are threatened by natural disturbances and human activities including those causing global-scale changes. Worldwide, corals increasingly are being replaced by macroalgae or non-coral invertebrates. The reefs of Moorea, French Polynesia, provide an ideal model system to understand factors that mediate ecological resilience and to develop… Read more »
Coral reefs provide important benefits to society, from food to exceptional biodiversity to shoreline protection and recreation, but they are threatened by natural perturbations and human activities, including those causing global-scale changes. These pressures increasingly are causing coral reefs to undergo large, often abrupt, ecological changes where corals are being replaced by seaweeds or other… Read more »
While cities often conjure images of buildings, parking lots, and streets, they are also home to diverse kinds of nature, in parks, yards, gardens, lakes, streams, and the like. This diverse urban nature is important habitat for many types of plants and wildlife, and is affected by a variety of stressors, ranging from toxic pollutants,… Read more »
