Coral Reef Resilience: The Importance of Fish Functional Groups
In 2010, when Cyclone Oli hit the reef, Han wondered which way the scale would tip: could the coral recover from both these impacts? Or would macroalgae move in and dominate?
Integrative Model Supports Biodiversity-Productivity Link
For nearly half a century, ecologists have struggled to explain the relationship between ecosystem productivity and species richness. In a recent paper in Nature, USGS Ecologist James Grace and colleagues have managed to account for the many variables and confirm the long-suspected connection. To do so, they used a causal network model to incorporate data… Read more »
The making of an ice storm
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 »
Call for Proposals: Synthesis Working Groups
The LTER Network Communications Office (NCO) announces a call for Synthesis Working Group proposals to promote analysis and synthesis of LTER data. Proposals must be submitted by the end of the day Wednesday, March 23, 2016, with research to begin before October 2016.
LTER Network Communications Office Appoints Lead Communications Officer
In August 2015, UCSB’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) was selected by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as the site of the first Network Communications Office (NCO) for the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) network. Martha “Marty” Downs has been appointed as the Communications Officer of the NCO and brings a background in both ecological research and science communications.
2015 LTER Mini-Symposium talks available for viewing and download
Early this year the annual Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Mini-Symposium scheduled for Thursday, March 5, 2015, had to be postponed when inclement weather forced the closure of the National Science Foundation (NSF) (see http://bit.ly/1NkuT9Q). At the time we reported that webcasts of the talks would be presented in blocks of two or three at… Read more »
LTER data key to studies in special issue of Biogeochemistry journal
Long term studies by a number of Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites were the basis for some of the 14 papers in a special issue of the journal Biogeochemistry entitled “Tracking evolution of urban biogeochemical cycles: past, present, and future.” The issue encompasses work by urban ecologists in different cities across the U.S. including… Read more »
Harvard Study Shows Sprawl Threatens Water Quality, Climate Protection, and Land Conservation Gains in Massachusetts
Important findings reveal promise and peril of land-use decisions Petersham, MA – A groundbreaking study by Harvard University’s Harvard Forest Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program and the Smithsonian Institution reveals that, if left unchecked, recent trends in the loss of forests to development will undermine significant land conservation gains in Massachusetts, jeopardize water quality,… Read more »
LTER scientists say humans threatening wetlands’ ability to overcome sea level rise
Human-induced changes may prevent wetlands from doing what they do best–mitigate expected sea level rise due to climate change, say Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) scientists in a paper featured in the latest issue of the scientific journal, Nature. In a press release issued by the National Science Foundation (NSF), lead author Matthew Kirwan of… Read more »
Study: Forest clearcuts show sustained losses of carbon, surprising trends in water
PETERSHAM, Mass.—A new study out of the Harvard Forest, released today in the journal Global Change Biology, is the first detailed account of how carbon, water, and energy balances shift in the three years following the clearcut of a deciduous forest. The study, conducted by Clark University Professor Christopher Williams and colleagues in a 20-acre… Read more »