Fungal friendships
By culturing fungi living within salt marsh plants, Postdoctoral Researcher Dr. Kylea Garces and PhD student Mya Darsan can learn not only what fungi are present, but how they benefit their plant hosts.
In 2016 and 2017, blogger and photographer Erika Zambello launched a road trip to visit as many LTER sites as possible. Follow her travels through the LTER Road Trip StoryMap or peruse the stories below.
See more of Erika’s work at E. Zambello Writing and Photography.
Meandering Through the Mangrove Forests of the Florida Coastal Everglades
Experience a day in the life of field research in the Everglades mangrove forests: full of beauty, wonder, and core research on the flow of resources through this resilient ecosystem.
Taking it to the park: mapping sawgrass vulnerability to peat collapse in the Florida Everglades
Luke Lamb-Wotton maps sawgrass vulnerability to saltwater intrusion and peat collapse at the FCE LTER site.
Pika enthusiasts unite under a common theme
At the Niwot Ridge LTER, community scientists expand the reach of pika research initiatives to understand how pikas might respond to climate change.
The Desert in Sync: In the Chihuahuan Desert, plants and pollinators coordinate to survive
Life in the Chihuahuan Desert endures amid extremes, so the desert’s inhabitants make the most of brief moments to sustain biodiversity.
Thawing Out Coastal Arctic Food Webs with Long-Term Biochemical Data
In Arctic lagoons, life persists through cold and dark winters, but few people are able to study and understand the bizarre life under sea ice. With chemical biomarkers and insight from local communities, food web ecologists are beginning to uncover how these organisms thrive in the harsh winter, and how they will continue to survive in the ever changing Arctic climate.
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.
Fire Brings New Perspectives on Disturbance at 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 »
LTER Road Trip: Boreal Forest Research Legacies
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 »
LTER Road Trip: Tundra roots may hold the secret to predicting a future Arctic
By Haley Dunleavy It’s a beautiful August day in the Arctic. The sun, now finally rising and setting after months of circling the sky, warms my face; neon yellows, pinks, reds, and greens of fall foliage speckle across the tundra, and most importantly, the previously incessant mosquitos have died off. I’m standing on a single-planked… Read more »
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Fungal friendships