As boreal forest wildfires increase in severity and frequency, new patterns of post-fire recovery are emerging. Research led by Jill Johnstone at Bonanza Creek LTER has found that recent wildfires led to changes in tree species dominance that are persisting through post-fire succession in Alaskan boreal forests, indicating the potential for a widespread shift in… Read more »
Every year, the Eastern North Pacific population of blue whales migrates between their winter calving grounds off the coast of Mexico and their summer feeding grounds in the California coastal region. Scientists know that they time their migration to coincide with peak prey abundances, but the cues they use for this have been unknown—until now…. Read more »
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 »
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. Dana Cook has been a graduate student with the Moorea Coral Reef LTER for the… Read more »
The 2020 Ecological Society of America (ESA) Meeting will be 100% virtual. One advantage of the online-only format is being able to hope from session to session and see as many talks as you might like. Attendees will be able to spread their viewing out over months! Many symposia and organized sessions will also be… Read more »
The LTER Network Office hosted three virtual opportunities in Spring 2020 for graduate students to learn more about careers outside of academia. Each webinar consists of brief introductions by 5-6 panelists who work in a particular type of career, followed by opportunities for participants to ask questions. Detailed descriptions of each webinar and panelist bios… Read more »
This month, as some LTER researchers made their way back into the field, lab, or just the outdoors, Jane Tucker and Eric Seabloom went the extra mile in protection and style with their LTER face masks! Be sure to tag @USLTER in your tweets for a chance to be featured in future newsletters. … Read more »
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. Allison Swartz is in her first year of a PhD after completing her Master’s degree… Read more »
On June 2, the LTER Executive Board shared the following message with all members of the LTER community: Dear LTER Community, As millions of people raise their voices in response to the killing of George Floyd, we are filled with grief and anger and reminded how far we still are from the fair and just society… Read more »
In 2018, M. Jake Vander Zanden and Yvonne Vadeboncoeur were invited to give a plenary lecture at the International Society for Limnology (SIL) meeting in Nanjing, China. They spoke about their efforts to synthesize a more holistic understanding of the role of benthic productivity and food web pathways in lakes. The two began their journey… Read more »
