Credit: Andrew RobisonDespite expanded suburban development, nitrogen fluxes to the estuary have remained steady since the early 1990s. River flow, which is becoming more variable along with climate, largely determines nitrogen retention. Imbalances between nutrient supply and demand reduce nutrient regulation during higher flows. Work at PIE LTER helped lead to a generalized framework for… Read more »
Measurements across latitudinal gradients, field experiments, and laboratory incubations all point to significant releases of CO2 and CH4 from soils that have been frozen or waterlogged since the last ice age. Over decadal time scales, this carbon release could overwhelm increased plant carbon uptake. In a warmer world, the boreal forest could be transformed into… Read more »
Local residents observe that warming has changed the timing of freeze up, affected river ice thickness and melt, and has reduced winter travel safety and access to local ecosystem services. Wildfire reduces access to the land, threatens cultural and historic sites, and reduces wildlife densities for one to several decades (e.g. moose and caribou, respectively)…. Read more »
Credit: CAP-LTER. CC BY-SA 4.0 Anticipating the needs of cities in the future is a key aspect of urban sustainability. One approach to planning for sustainable cities is for researchers and practitioners to work together to develop scenarios that benefit communities as well as ecosystems. Central Arizona Phoenix LTER (CAP LTER) is taking an innovative approach… Read more »
The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is predicted to be a near record size in 2019. By the end of summer, the hypoxic region at the mouth of the Mississippi River is expected to occupy over 22,000 square kilometers—an area the size of Massachusetts. The culprit? Nitrogen-based fertilizers applied to crops across the Midwest that… Read more »
Inspired by several citizen science projects, a team from Bonanza Creek LTER studied how changes to season lengths in Interior Alaska affected native and non-native species.
Researchers at Mo’orea LTER did not observe evidence that corals acclimatize to ocean acidification, but they did observe that some are more sensitive to it than others.
Multidisciplinary research is a positive shift toward understanding the complexity of human-natural systems. However, combining social science and ecological science methods does not necessarily equate to integration of ideas. Drawing from their urban ecology and environmental anthropology backgrounds, a group of LTER researchers propose using conceptual frameworks that go beyond characterizing social-ecological interactions as stepwise… Read more »
Martin Volaric (UVA Environmental Sciences) & Eli Stine (Music) Researchers studying intertidal oyster reefs are using sound recordings as a proxy for reef activity. During Summer 2018, researchers at the VCR-LTER made a series of recordings with two goals in mind:Credit: Cora Ann Johnston1) Pair sound with environmental measurements to study how reefs respond to… Read more »
As part of their current project, researchers at MCM LTER are writing a detailed study on the environmental history of the McMurdo Dry Valleys. The monograph will be available online and published as a book with an academic press. For more information visit the McMurdo Dry Valleys History website.
