Designing a long-term experiment to withstand the rising tides
Spend a day in the field with Virginia Coast Reserve researchers as they investigate ghost forests formed by sea level rise.
Meet our LTER Graduate Student Science Writers for 2021!
We are excited to announce our 2021 cohort of LTER grad student science writers. We received a high number of impressive applications, and after much deliberation we are happy to introduce seven students who represent sites from across the network and who bring unique backgrounds, experiences, and talents to the team. Over the next year… Read more »
Implementing a Virtual Site All-Scientists’ Meeting
By John Porter, Virginia Coastal Reserve LTER The big decision and assessing virtual meeting needs Each January, the Virginia Coast Reserve LTER holds an “All Scientists’ Meeting” to exchange information about research progress and to plan for upcoming activities over the coming year. Typically, this is an in-person meeting held at the Anheuser-Busch Coastal… Read more »
Databits: LTER Site Bytes 2020 Coastal Edition
Each year, the LTER Information Management (IM) committee gathers updates from sites across the network related to IM system and personnel changes over the past year, compiling them into a series of ‘Site Bytes’, or site summaries. This November, the first 2020 Site Bytes that started rolling into the editors’ (virtual) office were all from… Read more »
DataBits: Off-Site Backups to Amazon Web Services
What would happen to your site’s data if a fire, hurricane, or ransomware tore through your campus? Veteran information manager John Porter decided that a cloud backup was a wise insurance policy.
LTER Sites Central to Several New NSF Critical Zone Cluster Awards
The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced ten new awards for its Critical Zone Collaborative Network (CZCN), and LTER sites will play a prominent role in four of them. The awards fund a wide range of investigations to better understand the ‘critical zone’, the area of our planet where water, air, soil, rock and living… Read more »
The Ups and Downs of Coastal Marsh Elevation Modeling
The frequency of large coastal storms and hurricanes is on the rise, impacting the biological services that wetlands and marshes provide. Modeling makes it possible to predict how future storms may affect these ecosystems, but accurately modeling widespread impacts of large storms like Hurricane Sandy, which bombarded much of the U.S. eastern shoreline, requires significant… Read more »
Can seagrass meadows mitigate climate change?
As anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions continue to increase, scientists have now recognized seagrass meadows—which typically have high rates of carbon storage—as important ‘blue carbon’ sinks. However, rising ocean temperatures threaten seagrass meadows, along with their ability to retain carbon. This underlines the need for precise ecosystem data on the vulnerability and resilience of these meadows… Read more »
LTER Road Trip: Restoring Seagrass in Virginia’s Estuaries
Exploring the Estuary The waters lapping against the shoreline marshes reflected bright blue sky above. I sat in the front of the Virginia Coast Reserve Long Term Ecological Research (VCR LTER) site’s boat, exploring the estuary with VCR LTER’s dedicated staff. The tall Spartina alternifora grasses waved in the breeze a foot or two above… Read more »
LTER Road Trip: A Shrubby Invasion
Islands on the Move I stood on a windy barrier island, hair whipping around my face as my boots crunched across beach seashells. The waves crashed into the sand, here and there stirring up food for one of the many gulls seeking rest or prey on this island. Before me stretched the Atlantic Ocean, as… Read more »
Top Stories
Leveraging Generative AI: Applications for the LTER Network
Three new SPARC Synthesis Groups demonstrate the value of long-term data collected across ecosystems
Listening First: How KBS is Expanding the Reach of Conservation Research
Ecology: The Science of Resiliency
Boxes and boxes of bees—a Sevilleta LTER dataset highlight
Site Exchange Fellows Announced
LTER Graduate Students and Postdocs Summer Mentoring Community of Practice
Collaboration with Shellfishers: an APEAL Seed Project
Letting art do the work that science cannot: Bonanza Creek’s In a Time of Change program
Request for Synthesis Proposals 2025