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Out of Sight, but not Out of Mind

Beneath our feet…under snow and ice…deep in desert soils―plants and microbes keep churning. Whether or not they receive any attention, their activities affect water clarity, survival of salt marshes, the impact of future droughts, and the pace of climate change.

Much of the research from the National Science Foundation’s Long Term Ecological Research Network being presented at the 2018 American Geophysical Union Meeting deals with the often-hidden realms of deep soil processes, ice-covered lakes, and plant roots.

Studies of deep soil layers at two Northeastern forest sites (Hubbard Brook and Harvard Forest LTERs) reveal that freeze and thaw cycles―which are becoming more common than continuously frozen ground during winter―result in more active microbes and greater production of carbon dioxide from deep soils.

The Ecology Under Lake Ice (EULI) project, drawing heavily on data from the North Temperate Lakes LTER Program, present a global study on the importance of microbial activity under ice. Their findings―from over 100 globally-distributed lakes―may help predict the effects of longer ice-free periods on water quality and freshwater fish populations.

In the Southwestern desert, at the Jornada Basin LTER, studies comparing the effects of droughts on plant leaves and roots find that the above-ground portion of desert shrubs recover rapidly from even severe drought, but that plants facing successive droughts lose more and more roots with each incident.

Other NSF LTER-related presentations will deal with coastal sediment transport, the pace of permafrost thaw, mechanisms of salt marsh collapse, approaches to preserving and finding long term data, and the enormous power of engaging across multiple networks.

LTER Graduate Student Meet and Mingle:

The LTER Graduate Student Committee is planning a dinner for students to meet & mingle at AGU. Date is Thursday, Dec. 13th. Keep your eye on the LTER Graduate Student Facebook Group for further details.

Title Time Location

Monday, December 10

Quantifying plant-available soil moisture in topographically complex terrain 8:00 am- 12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Non-linear shift from grassland to shrubland in temperate barrier islands 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Application of machine-learning tools to extract patterns in long-term DOC monitoring data: an integrated, multi-scale approach 9:15-9:30 am Convention Ctr – 156
Influence of Wrack on Coastal Foredune Development and Dune Habitat Complexity 9:30-9:45 am Convention Ctr – 145B
Strengthening the biogeosciences in environmental research networks 10:35-10:50 am Convention Ctr – 156
Identifying the spatial impact and temporal legacy of a single extreme warm event on the runoff generation efficiency of glaciers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica 11:06-11:09 pm Convention Ctr – eLightning Theater II
Evaluation of stream restoration strategies for urban residential watersheds by coupling riparian and aquatic ecosystem modeling 11:50 am-12:05 pm Convention Ctr – 101
Assessing Spatiotemporal Variability in Mountain Ecosystem Productivity with Multispectral Unmanned Aerial Systems 1:40-1:55 pm Convention Ctr – 145A
Model Utilization of Land Cover Data Products in Heterogeneous Urban Areas: Development Density Bias and Correction 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Defining the Importance of Upland Landscapes Using Critical Zone and Other Similar Observatories 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Integrating ECOTONE and WEMO models to simulate the evolution of vegetation pattern impacted by sediment movement
1:40-6:00 pm
Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Unexpected patterns of grassland root production during and after repeated extreme droughts 2:10-2:25 pm Convention Ctr – 149AB

Tuesday, December 11

Projections of future stream water chemistry under the Representative Concentration Pathways in an old-growth Douglas-fir forest of the Pacific Northwest using a biogeochemical model with improved algorithm on soil cation exchange capacity 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Relationship between shrub cover and plant available water in a U.S. Southwest desert 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
The Role of Broad-scale Climate in the Periodic Northern Expansion of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Incidence in North America 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
NES-LTER: A New Long Term Ecological Research Site on the Northeast U.S. Shelf 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
CCHDO: delivering high quality hydrographic data from the Southern Ocean and beyond 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Quantifying Mineral Weathering Across Lateral Gradients Using a Whole-Regolith Approach 8:00 am-12:20 pm
Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Characterizing Subsurface Hydrologic Fluxes within a Glaciated Watershed 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
The Different Responses of Arctic Terrestrial and Aquatic Food Webs to Long-term Nutrient Additions 9:30-9:45 am Convention Ctr – 143A-C
A Stream-Side Mesocosm Study of Organic Matter Processing in the Hyporheic Zone 10:35-10:50 am Convention Ctr – 151A
Development and Application of Percentile-Range Indexed Mapping and Evaluation (PRIME) Tool for Long Term Ecological Assessment 11:20-11:35 am Convention Ctr – 145A
Correcting tree-ring ẟ13C-based water-use efficiency time series for tree-size and canopy-position effects in eight temperate tree species 11:35-11:50 am Convention Ctr
– 145B
Using soil development patterns and processes to explain sources of streamflow generation in a glaciated catchment 1:40-1:55 pm Convention Ctr
– 154AB
Coupled Interaction of Shrubs, Dunes, and Barrier Overwash 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Classification mapping of salt marsh vegetation by flexible monthly NDVI time-series using Landsat imagery 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Modeling Long-Term Salt Marsh Response to Sea Level Rise and Human Impacts in the Sediment Deficient Plum Island Estuary, MA 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Data-model integration to develop a knowledge landscape map for improved prediction 1:40-6:00 pm
Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Digging down: How respiration from different soil depths responds to climate change 3:25-3:40 pm Convention Ctr – 150B

Wednesday, December 12

Numerical Modeling of Historical and Projected Permafrost Soil Temperatures with Carbon Flux Implications 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Interactive effects of seagrass and the microphytobenthos on sediment suspension within shallow coastal bays 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
A trans-disciplinary approach to disease ecology: linking local to regional scales of drivers and biological processes through big data-model integration 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Hydrometric and Tracer Based Analysis of Hydrologic Storage Across Geologically and Geomorphologically Variable Temperate Catchments 8:00 am-12:20 pm
Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Facilitating data discovery on the Internet using sitemaps.org and schema.org dataset metadata through the Environmental Data Initiative Data Portal 8:04-8:07 am Convention Ctr – eLightning Theater II
Precipitation-Pulse Regimes Determine Functioning of Dryland Ecosystems 08:15 – 08:30 am Convention Ctr – 150A
The Pulse-Reserve Paradigm of Aridland Function from the Microbial Perspective 08:30 – 08:45 am Convention Ctr – 150A
Warming and nitrogen addition alters soil organic matter composition in a temperate forest soil 10:20-10:35 am Convention Ctr – 150A
Research is more valuable when its data are published 10:27-10:30 am Convention Ctr – eLightning Theater II
Leveraging network science to evaluate mechanisms and models of soil organic matter stabilization and change 10:50-11:05 am Convention Ctr – 150A
Linking continental scale ice loss to winter biogeochemistry in north temperate lakes 11:05-11:20 am Convention Ctr – 149AB
Concentration-Discharge Responses to Storm Events in Coastal California Watersheds 11:35 – 11:50 am Convention Ctr – 145B
Assessing salt marsh resilience with sediment fluxes: the critical role of marine sediment inputs 1:40-1:55 pm Convention Ctr – 149AB
Concentration-Discharge Responses to Storm Events in Coastal California Watersheds 11:35 – 11:50 am Convention Ctr – 145B
Assessing salt marsh resilience with sediment fluxes: the critical role of marine sediment inputs 1:40-1:55 pm Convention Ctr – 149AB
Assessing Changes in Hyporheic Storage from Over Two Decades of Diel Flood Recessions in Antarctic Streams 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Sediment Flux and Short-Lived Fallout Radionuclide Activities in an Urban setting, Dead Run, Baltimore, Maryland, USA 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Increased Severity of Ice Storms May Have Important Implications for Carbon Cycling 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Variability in Leaf Litter Decomposition Across a Forest Mycorrhizal Gradient 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Drivers of Bistability in a Rapidly Submerging Marsh 2:25-2:40 pm Convention Ctr  – 149AB
Decoupling between Marsh and Tidal Channel Sediment Supply under Seasonal Variations in Plant Biomass 5:15-5:30 pm Convention Ctr – 145B
Seagrass impact on sediment exchange between tidal flats and salt marsh and the sediment budget of shallow bays 5:30-5:45 pm Convention Ctr – 145B

Thursday, December 13

Using ontologies to operationalize Essential Biodiversity Variables 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Soil creep in a New England salt marsh: fast, seasonal, and likely mediated by vegetation 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
The Environmental Data Initiative’s Approach To Data Publishing Training For Research Teams 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Consequences of Extreme Rainfall Patterns on Nitrous Oxide Fluxes in Midwest Cropping Systems 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Heterogeneous patterns of mangrove disturbance and recovery from Hurricane Irma 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Measuring the Effects of Long-term Nitrogen Fertilization on Soil Carbon Cycling in Two Tropical Forests 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Employing Remote Sensing Techniques to Quantify Sediment Supply and Evaluate Marsh Vulnerability in the Plum Island Estuary 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
The impact of offshore waves and vegetation on the sediment budget in the Virginia Coast Reserve (VA) 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Influence of Ocean Acidification and Climate Change on the Biogeochemistry in the Gulf of Alaska: A regional modeling study 8:00 am -12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Variations of suspended sediment yields in nested urban catchments 8:00 am -12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Heterogeneity of groundwater and surface water nitrate loads in nested urban watersheds 8:00 am -12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Modeling coupled atmospheric-hydrological processes in urban areas 8:00 am -12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Using a Big Data Model Integration Approach to Forecast the Geographic Range of an Invasive Disease at the Continental Scale 8:00 am -12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Increasing accumulation of soil organic matter in mangrove forests could indicate greater-than-expected resilience to sea-level rise and enhance the ongoing carbon sink capacity 9:15-9:30 am Convention Ctr – 147B
Water Stable Isotope Ratios Reveal Network Scale Variability in Base Flow Water Sources in a Western Cascades headwater stream network 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Will mangrove encroachment mitigate carbon loss with saltwater intrusion in subtropical coastal wetlands? 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Drivers and Mechanisms of Peat Collapse in Coastal Wetlands 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Exploration of Sentinel-1 InSAR observations for Monitoring Water Level Changes in Everglades Florida 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Supporting Teachers to Identify Natural Phenomena Through the Storylines Embedded in Online Earth Science Datasets 2:04-2:10 pm Convention Ctr – 209A-C

Friday, December 14

Fate of cohesive sediments in a marsh-dominated estuary 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Harnessing the Power of Open Data and Analytics for Characterizing the Role of Hydrological Processes in the Spread of a Vector-borne Livestock Disease in Multiple Watersheds across the Western US 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Aeolian processes: an overlooked driver of state changes in drylands 8:00 am-12:20 pm  Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Multi-year and multi-season transcriptomic profiling of forest tree species from LTER sites for understanding latitudinal variation in growth performance. 9:24-9:36 am Convention Ctr – 149AB
Energy balance changes drive differential response to simulated warming in an alpine and subalpine snowpack 10:20-10:35 am Convention Ctr – Salon G
Machine Learning for Accelerating Science 13:40-18:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)

Additional Presentations of Interest to the LTER Network

ENVRI FAIR – the next step towards FAIRer environmental research T 9:00-9:10 am Convention Ctr – 209A-C
Extending Ecological Monitoring Networks with Unmanned Aircraft System Remote Sensing T 11:50-12:05 pm Marriott Marquis – Marquis 9-10
Forest stand structure and dynamics of warm temperate forest in Mt. Geumsan, Korea W 1:40-6:00 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)
Estimating Terrestrial Water and Carbon Fluxes using an Integrated Rate Methodology R 4:00-4:15 pm Convention Ctr – 154AB
Genomic Observatories Network: socio-technical perspectives on the path to long-term multi-omic observation R 8:00 am-12:20 pm Convention Ctr – Hall A-C (Poster Hall)