This SSALTER blog is modified from the REU students’ weekly blog posts. Check out the fieldwork snippets they have done this summer!

today, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to some of the remarkable flora and fauna who call the Chihuahuan desert home—I hope you’ll meet their smug, elitist, shy, anxious selves in person one day.

As I find myself in the dog days of an Alaskan summer – powerless to change my bug-infested situation – there is no choice but acceptance.

“We know that salt marsh plants face stressors like sea level rise, drought, and excess nutrient runoff. What is more difficult to predict is the localized response to these stressors,” writes Kyle Runion of his

There are a multitude of reasons why gelatinous zooplankton pose an enticing scientific challenge. Dante Capone explores why the CCE LTER studies these creatures in a new SSALTER blog post.

Cole Doolittle studies how fires alter plant communities in the Pacific Northwest, and he talks about the impact of fires in this SSALTER blog.

Research from Dr. Robyn Zerebecki and collaborators demonstrates that intraspecific variation can have ecosystem-level consequences.

When the sun bakes me in the heat, when I find a tick crawling on my skin, when water has soaked the socks through my boots, when the tree branches whip my face, when equipment breaks, when I am staying up late labeling plastic bags, when I am waking up pre-dawn to take measurements, when I am feeling completely overwhelmed  – I remind myself of my favorite things.

A warming climate, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the harsh conditions make research at the McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER site remarkably interesting!

Molly Fisher and James Guinnip pen this entry for the SSALTER Blog, describing stream research in the Konza prairie Ecosystem.