What will the future feel like in our forests? In six plots at the Hubbard Brook Long Term Ecological Research Site in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the trees already know. Dr. Pamela Templer has created a robust simulation of the climate—warmer summer temperatures and later snowfall—that these forests will experience within the century…. Read more »
The IPCC projects that, even if humans succeed in keeping temperatures below the 2°C target set in Paris, sea level will rise 0.28 to 0.61 m this century. With this amount of sea level rise, salt water pulses from high tide floods and storm surges will become ever-more common in coastal ecosystems. Multiple LTER sites are running experiments… Read more »
Take a cruise out to sea with Maitreyi Nagarkar to sample isotopes at the California Current Ecosystems LTER Site.
From August 7 to August 12, the Ecological Society of America will hold its annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This year’s theme, “Novel Ecosystems in the Anthropocene,” will build on discussions initiated during last year’s centennial meeting, “Ecological Science at the Frontier.” Human influence now represents the dominant influence on ecosystems worldwide– and a… Read more »
Between 2013 and 2015, Andrew Rypel traveled the state of Wisconsin attending public meetings led by state and local fisheries staff— always with a set of graphs in hand. These graphs showed the steady decline in the size of panfish found in state lakes over the past seventy years. Panfish (unsurprisingly) are fish that fit… Read more »
PhysFest participants measure gas exchange on an annually-burned watershed. On June 5th, 45 plant eco-physiologists traveled to Kansas from all corners of the country to take part in the inaugural PhysFest. This “un-meeting,” held at the Konza Prairie Biological Station and LTER Site and hosted by the Kansas State Plant EcoPhys Lab, aimed to break all… Read more »
The LTER Science Council met May 16-19, 2016 in Santa Barbara, CA at NCEAS, the location ofthe LTER Network Communications Office. Sadly, the “field trip” to the Moorea Coral Reef Site had to be virtual, but attendees had the opportunity to get a taste of the site and research underway there through slide shows, imagery… Read more »
Breakout sessions from the Science Council meetings often evolve into synthesis working groups. The 2016 meeting was no exception, with a lively and challenging series of discussions resulting in six potential synthesis groups. If any of the descriptions below pique your interest, please follow up with the designated lead scientist or correspondent. How Do Abiotic Factors… Read more »
In January, as part of its mission to enhance collaboration across the LTER network, the NCO called for Synthesis Working Group proposals. The request elicited 24 highly competitive proposals that together harnessed data from all 24 LTER sites. Selection was based on scientific merit, contribution to LTER Network science, and use of novel approaches. We… Read more »
One strength of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network is that it reveals patterns and connections that are only apparent over years and decades. As a national network, it also offers extraordinary opportunities to make comparisons among ecosystems. The Network Communications Office announces the funding of three LTER synthesis proposals, which combine existing data to yield… Read more »
