LTER Grad Student Spotlight: Emilia Grzesik

Emilia and her field tech, Elliot, in the field sampling black spruce forest fuel loads at Bonanza Creek LTER in Alaska.

This spotlight is part of an ongoing series featuring many of our wonderful LTER Network graduate student representatives who contribute valuable research and leadership across the network. To learn more about graduate research in the LTER network, visit this page. Emilia Grzesik is a second year Master’s student at the University of Fairbanks, Alaska (near completion)… Read more »

Fire Brings New Perspectives on Disturbance at H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest

View of the Holiday Fire burning through H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest

By Natasha Griffin, PhD candidate at Oregon State University The staff of the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest LTER site had almost no time to prepare when a massive wildfire swept through the region in early September. Stoked by dry late-summer conditions and extreme high winds, Oregon’s Holiday Farm fire began spreading rapidly as soon as… Read more »

The Edge of Agriculture: Pests and Crop Configuration

A prairie strip growing in wheat at the KBS LTER Main Cropping Systems Experiment.

In agricultural landscapes, predatory insects provide an essential ecosystem service — valued at billions of dollars annually — by suppressing pests that damage crops. A new study that includes data from Kellogg Biological Station LTER (KBS LTER) found that natural pest suppression gains a big boost when agricultural landscapes are patchy and include a high… Read more »

Seeing the forest for the shrubs in Southern Appalachia

Rhododendron shrubs leave no space left unfilled as its branches stretch over the forest floor and streams. Photo credit: Maura Dudley.

As ecosystems respond to human activity, what organisms will emerge as new trailblazers, shaping the diversity and resilience of these changing environments? And how can land managers identify these species early on to better prepare for the future? Forests of southern Appalachia have a history fraught with human activity. Hardy and towering, American chestnut and… Read more »

LTER Road Trip: Boreal Forest Research Legacies

Xanthe Walker organizes tree cores while sampling in the 1987 burn near Delta Junction, Alaska.

By Haley Dunleavy, PhD Candidate at Northern Arizona University Leaving my house, I feel like a runaway. I am packed inside an economy-sized rental car with my field clothes, camping gear, and of course, face masks, heading 300 miles north to meet my advisor Michelle Mack and fellow lab members for a couple days of… 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 »

LTER at American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2020

Like everything else in 2020, the Fall Meeting of the America Geophysical Union (AGU) will be different this year. Talks, posters, town halls, lectures, exhibits and mixers will all be available online and the meeting timeline has been extended to encompass nearly three weeks in early December. Running from December 1-17, the 2020 meeting offers… Read more »

Presenting at an upcoming meeting?

Will you be attending an upcoming scientific meeting? Want your colleagues to know when and where you are presenting? Please fill out the form below and the LTER Network Office will compile and share a list of all the LTER presentations at the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, the American Geophysical Union Annual Fall… Read more »

Stop giving early and late Arctic seasons the ‘cold shoulder’, say LTER scientists

Streams LTER Research Assistant Frances Iannucci (a coauthor on the study) recording dissolved oxygen in a watershed associated with the Arctic LTER.

Climate change is hitting Arctic ecosystems hard – permafrost is rapidly thawing, releasing previously-frozen organic matter into the surrounding environment. Knowing not only how, but when, dissolved organic matter (DOM) and other nutrient concentrations are changing is important for predicting effects of climate change, but the picture is currently incomplete.  A new paper from Arctic… Read more »