When it Rains, it’s Gonna Pour

Fires and floods are becoming all too common for coastal Southern California residents — but are these ‘extreme’ events likely to become even more frequent? Answering this question requires a comprehensive understanding of precipitation patterns in the region and how they are likely to change in the coming decades. Most previous research on climate change… Read more »

Presenting at the 2019 ESA Meeting? Tell us about it!

Logo for ESA 2019 Annual Meeting

Will you be attending the 2019 Ecological Society of America Meeting? Want your colleagues to know when and where you are presenting? Please fill out the form below and the LTER Network Communications Office will compile and share a list of all the LTER presentations at the meeting. 2018, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2012 summaries are… Read more »

Q&A with Lauren Alteio: First isolation of giant virus genomes in soil from a forest ecosystem

Soil sample collection from the Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts.

Researchers Frederik Schulz (US Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute) and Lauren Alteio (University of Massachusetts) have discovered sixteen new giant viruses in soil samples from a long-term research site at the Harvard Forest LTER, described in a Nature Communications paper published in November 2018. Giant viruses are larger than most single celled organisms, and tend… Read more »

Poster Sessions at the 2018 All Scientists Meeting

The following posters will be presented at the 2018 LTER All Scientists’ Meeting and are organized here alphabetically by last name. Session A posters (A-F001 to A-K128) will be presented on Monday evening, October 1st and Session B posters (B-F001 to B-K130) will be presented on Tuesday evening, October 2nd. Posters labeled with F are… Read more »

2018 ESA Annual Meeting Presentations

researcher up to her armpits in marshwater

2018 ESA Annual Meeting Presentations In the past year alone, extreme events including hurricanes, droughts, and extensive fires have impacted significant regions of the United States—affecting the health of both natural habitats and human communities. Fittingly, the theme of this year’s Ecological Society of America (ESA) annual meeting is ‘Extreme events, resilience and human well-being.’… Read more »

A Balancing Act for Coastal Freshwater Marshes

On the boundaries of fresh and saltwater systems, coastal marshes give rise to diverse, productive ecosystems that act as carbon sinks. Their secret? Freshwater marsh plants receive just the right amount of nutrients and salt from periodic seawater tides to thrive. However, incursions of saltwater into these systems are increasing —often caused by drought and… Read more »

Maintaining Ecosystem Services in the Yahara Watershed and Beyond

The Yahara may sound like the name of a vast desert, but it’s actually a 359-square mile watershed in southern Wisconsin. The Yahara Watershed is a mix of urbanized land (including the state capital), productive agriculture land, and a chain of lakes called the Yahara Lakes. Because of its diverse environment, the Yahara provides many… Read more »

A Silver Lining in Arctic Permafrost Thaw

Climate change is already impacting polar habitats such as the Arctic tundra, where increasing temperatures are causing permafrost to thaw and exposing soil and organic matter that have been buried for thousands of years. Many scientists predicted that this soil, once exposed, would release a massive amount of sequestered carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to… Read more »