LTER Network News | December 2019

December 2019

LTER Network News is a forum for sharing news and activities from across the LTER Network. This is our water cooler. If you have personnel changes, new grants, or cross-Network activities that might interest your LTER colleagues, please send them along to weiss@nceas.lternet.edu.

LTER Network Self Study is available on the LTER Network website. NSF is convening the review committee, which will complete its work over the next several months. Many thanks to all the hard working members of the self study committee!

Sethuraman Panchanathan nominated to be next NSF director. Currently, Dr. Panchanathan leads the knowledge enterprise development at Arizona State University (ASU), which advances research, innovation, strategic partnerships, entrepreneurship, and global and economic development at ASU.

Battelle Names Paula Mabee as Chief Scientist and Observatory Director for National Ecological Observatory Network. Currently a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of South Dakota, Mabee served as Division Director for the Division of Environmental Biology in the Directorate of Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation from 2015 until 2017.

Forest Structural Diversity Workshop, May 18-20, 2020 at the NEON headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. University faculty members, government or NGO scientists, postdoctoral researchers, and PhD students nearing degree completion are welcome to apply. Travel support is available for up to 30 participants. Application deadline is January 20, 2020.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2020 SEEDS National Field Trip for undergraduates to the Sevilleta LTER site in La Joya, New Mexico from April 15-19. Application deadline is January 31, 2020.  Or support field trip opportunities through a contribution to  the Henry L. Gholz National SEEDS Field trip endowment, which delivers life-changing opportunities to explore and discover ecological connections and engagement with like-minded students and scientists who study our world.

SESYNC SEEDS Workshop on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Socio-Environmental Synthesis Research, March 24-27, 2020 in Annapolis, Maryland. In addition to building Socio-Environmental synthesis skills and advancing scientific diversity, the workshop is designed to prepare graduate students to lead and/or otherwise contribute to the beginnings of a Graduate Pursuit. Application deadline: January 21, 2020.

Enabling Interdisciplinary and Team Science: This intensive, two-day, interactive, professional development course, hosted by the American Institute of Biological Sciences, was designed by scientists and experts on collaboration and teamwork to provide participants with the knowledge and skills required to become productive and effective members of scientific teams. Next session is April 27-28, 2020 in Washington D.C.

The NATURA project (Nature-based Solutions for Urban Resilience in the Anthropocene) is an international network of networks that exchange & synthesize knowledge, data, and solutions among researchers and practitioners on nature-based solutions to advance urban resilience. You are invited to respond to this brief survey to help the coordinating committee further articulate the vision and goals for NATURA.

LTER Committee Meetings and LTER-related events are available for your reference at any time on the LTER Network Calendar.

The 2020 LTER Science Council Meeting is scheduled for May 5-7, 2020 in Tempe Arizona.

AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting is scheduled for 16-21 February, 2020 in San Diego, CA. Heidi Sosik, who leads the Northeast Shelf LTER site, will be keynoting. (Heidi rocked the Rachel Carson lecture at AGU, btw)

Society for Range Management Annual Meeting will be held in Denver from February 17-20, 2020. There are opportunities for LTER researchers to participate in both the technical meeting and the range practicum.

Plum Island Ecosystems LTER PI Anne Giblin has a new genus of cyanobacteria named in her honor. And she’s in good company. The genera Gibliniella and Shackletoniella were described in a recent issue of FEMS Microbiology Ecology.

Harvard Forest dendrochronology data is featured in a newly-released Data Nugget. Students use authentic data to study how a species of tree responds to warming temperatures from climate change, and learn how to date real tree cores.

Research and scientists from Hubbard Brook and Harvard Forest LTER sites are both featured in this recent Northern Woods Resilient Forest series.

Hubbard Brook LTER researchers also published a new Science Links report titled “Confronting Our Changing Winters” that provides a set of specific indicators of how winter conditions are changing, right now, on the ground, in northeastern North America.

A Torgersen Island, Antarctica penguin live webcam is now online – follow Adelie penguin breeding season and watch for updates on the Palmer LTER field season research cruises set for January and February.

Congratulations to Nancy Grimm of the Central Arizona Phoenix LTER, who holds the Virginia M. Ullman Chair in Ecology in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, and was recently awarded the highest ASU faculty award possible: Regents Professor.

From the National Science Foundation

Warming at the poles will have global consequences
Microplastics million times more abundant in the ocean than previously thought
Plant biodiversity struggles to return in wake of agricultural abandonment

Other media

Northwoods Researcher Finds Tree Ring Sizes Match Historic Lake Levels, Giving Window Into Past | WXPR Public Radio
360 Perspective: Allison Zahorec on Studying Microarthropods | MSU Today
Warming at the poles will soon be felt globally in rising seas, extreme weather | National Geographic
UNH scientist one of ‘the world’s most influential researchers‘ | NH Union Leader

The most recent LTER-related papers are available on the LTER Network web site and the full Network bibliography is available at the LTER Network Zotero Group Library. Listed here is just a small sampling of the 30-40 LTER related papers that are published each month.

• Experimental effects of elevated temperature and nitrogen deposition on high-elevation aquatic communities | Aquatic Sciences
• The life aquatic in high relief: shifts in the physical and biological characteristics of alpine lakes along an elevation gradient in the Rocky Mountains, USA | Aquatic Sciences
• Evidence for phosphorus limitation in high-elevation unvegetated soils, Niwot Ridge, Colorado | Biogeochemistry
• Microbial spatial footprint as a driver of soil carbon stabilization | Nature Communications
• popler: An r package for extraction and synthesis of population time series from the long‐term ecological research (LTER) network | Methods in Ecology and Evolution
• Ant biodiversity and ecosystem services in bioenergy landscapes | Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
• Local‐regional similarity in drylands increases during multiyear wet and dry periods and in response to extreme events | Ecosphere
• Diversity of cyanobacteria at the Alaska North Slope with description of two new genera: Gibliniella and Shackletoniella | Microbiology Ecology
• Biomass loss and change in species dominance shift stream community excretion stoichiometry during severe drought | Freshwater Biology
• Know your watershed and know your neighbor: Paths to supporting urban watershed conservation and restoration in Baltimore, MD and Phoenix, AZ | Landscape and Urban Planning

• NSF’s LTER Site Renewal RFP is posted
  Due date: March 5, 2020
• Growing Convergence Research (GCR)
  Full proposals due May 8  |  Note from solicitation: “Proposers must make a convincing case that the research to be conducted is within NSF’s purview and cannot be supported by existing NSF programs and multidisciplinary initiatives. Proposals involving convergence in areas covered by existing programs and solicitations will be returned without review.”
• NSF Biology Integration Institutes (BII)
  Letters of Intent due December 20, 2019; full proposal due February 6, 2020
• Navigating the New Arctic (NNA)
  Full proposals due February 11, 2020
• Understanding the Rules of Life: Microbiome Theory and Mechanisms
  Letters of intent due January 17, 2020; full proposals due March 2, 2020
• Toolik Field Station TUNDRA Awards (Tundra Userdays for Naturally Developing Research Abilities). TUNDRA provides user-day support for early career researchers. Two yearly deadlines: March 15th and August 15th
• Research Coordination Networks in Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN-UBE)
  Full proposal: January 21, 2020
• Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources
  Full proposal: February 4, 2020
• Botany in Action (BIA) Fellowship program for PhD students
• 2020 Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award
• Huyck Preserve 2020 Research Grants

• Ph.D. Assistantship in Hydrology and Biogeochemistry – Virginia Tech
• Research opportunities in Disturbance Ecology – Malone Lab
• Graduate Assistantship in Forest Nutrient Cycling – Hubbard Brook and Bartlett Experimental Forest
• Prescribed Burn Technician – Cedar Creek LTER

Featured Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs)

• The Future of Urban Ecosystem Services undergraduate research opportunity (UREx SRN)
• Northeast U.S. Shelf Long-Term Ecological Research (NES-LTER) REUs
• Harvard Forest REUs
• Luquillo Tropical Ecology REUs
• Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies REU Program
• Sevilleta Field Station REU Program
• Hubbard Brook LTER REUs
• Florida Coastal Everglades LTER REUs
• Plum Island Ecosystems LTER REUs
• Arctic LTER (Toolik Lake) REUs
• Northeast Shelf LTER REUs
• Cedar Creek LTER – Summer and Fall Plant Community Ecology Internships

Promoting summer REU fellowships? Please capitalize on our video from the 2018 All Scientists’ Meeting: “How Undergrads Can Get Involved in LTER Research”

The following committees are actively seeking new members. Please reach out to the designated contact people if you have interest. The listing of active LTER committees and their membership is always available on the LTER Network website.

Diversity Committee: Interested in helping develop a set of resources and best practices to apply across the Network? Alan Berkowitz (berkowitza@caryinstitute.org) co-chairs this committee.

Communications Committee: Clarisse Hart (hart3@fas.harvard.edu) and Lina DiGregorio (lina.digregorio@oregonstate.edu) chair this committee that is building a community of practice among LTER communicators and investigators.