Putting the “urban” in disturbance: Applying ecological frameworks to cities

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The concept of “disturbance” is a core theme of the LTER Network and central to ecological science. How does the idea of disturbance need to change when applied to the interactions of an urban metropolitan region rather than a “natural” system? Ecologists often consider the process of urbanization itself to be a form of disturbance, but that is a habit that has to change, say the authors of a recent paper in Ecosystem Health and Sustainability. People, technology, and infrastructure have to be defined as part of the system when studying cities, they say.

Sustainability in the City

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Ecosystem services, such as the water cycle or flood control, support urban sustainability but are also impacted by the development of city-centers. Improving the sustainable design and management of cities, then, requires understanding how development affects such processes and services. A recent study contrasted two methods for measuring urban sustainability, ecology in cities and ecology of cities, and found that the integrative framework of ecology of cities more thoroughly addresses sustainability and its three components: the environment, economy, and society.

Plausible freshwater futures: Yahara watershed, Wisconsin, USA

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aerial of Yahara watershed in Wisconsin

Talk Description: Scenarios can help communities think about alternative futures, but using them to drive decisions requires data. In Wisconsin’s Yahara Watershed, researchers are combining data and modelling from the Northern Temperate lakes LTER with qualitative scenarios based on trends and events from the global scenarios literature and stakeholder perspectives. The resulting assessments can help… Read more »

Beyond Citizen Science: Local Observations of Climate Change Impacts Guide Vulnerability Research

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sled dogs pull supplies over bare patch of ground

Unstable ice. Raging rivers. Fire-scorched landscapes. Deep within Alaska’s Yukon River Basin, residents faced with these obstacles during travel or hunting trips now use camera-enabled GPS units to send photographs to researchers across the state. Scientists at the Bonanza Creek LTER and University of Alaska, Fairbanks are using the images, along with the associated GPS… Read more »

The making of an ice storm

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Ice storms are powerfully disruptive to northeastern forests, but truly understanding their dynamics has proved challenging because they strike with little warning. Hubbard Brook LTER scientists took the matter into their own hands by creating an ice storm of their own making. The experiment, which was covered by NSF360 and Science Now, is allowing them… Read more »

SBC LTER researchers respond in force to the Refugio oil spill

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Traveling west along the Gaviota coast on the afternoon of May 19, 2015, Santa Barbara Coastal (SBC) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) scientists Mark Page and Jenny Dugan and graduate student Nicholas Schooler first noticed a very strong smell of oil starting about a mile east of Refugio State Beach. They decided to park along… Read more »

Nelson and Vucetich question new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act

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What exactly does the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s recent reinterpretation of the Endangered Species Act portend for endangered species? Michael P. Nelson, the Principal Investigator of H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program and John A. Vucetich (an ecologist at Michigan Technological University), tackle that question in a recent opinion piece… Read more »

KBS LTER work helps shape USDA greenhouse gas policy

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KBS LTER director Phil Robertson was part of team that authored a report that, for the first time, provides uniform scientific methods for quantifying the changes in greenhouse gas emissions and carbon storage from various land management and conservation activities. Read more: http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2014/msu-helps-shape-usda-greenhouse-gas-policy/

When science meets policy: a grad student’s experience on the Hill

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From the KBS LTER – Every year the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America (ASA-CSSA-SSSA) hold a Congressional Visits Day (CVD) in Washington, D.C. during appropriations season. The goal is to have a strong presence of faculty, students, and crop advisors advocating for agricultural and… Read more »