Working Group Type: Research

Credit: Zoe Cardon. CC BY-SA 4.0.Interconnectedness between plant and microbial communities is likely a key indicator of ecosystem functioning and stability. These associations could be assessed through synchrony, the degree of similarity in temporal fluctuations between different ecosystem components, and coupling, which is the pairwise association of components in the ecosystem. However, few studies have… Read more »

Recent advances in trait-based frameworks, that utilize universal functional traits to examine functional diversity, provide a critical opportunity to better understand patterns in diversity across taxa with diverse phylogenetic lineages, especially in response to global change. While ecologists have had much success using universal traits for plants with diverse origins, methodologies in consumer studies are… Read more »

While there is widespread appreciation that abiotic/climate legacies strongly influence community assembly and ecosystem resilience, there is emerging evidence that another type of legacy—structural and resource remnants left by organisms—may exert as strong or stronger effects. The remnants of foundation species (e.g., dead trees, corals, oysters, and grasses) are likely highly influential, as these abundant… Read more »

Quantifying interactive effects of fire and precipitation regimes on catchment biogeochemistry of aridlands Increases in the frequency, extent, and severity of wildfires could have long-lasting and wide-ranging effects on hydrology and biogeochemistry of catchments, with consequences for ecosystem services including provision of drinking water. In aridlands, effects of fire will depend on interactions with the… Read more »

Selection across scales—merging evolutionary biology and community ecology to understand trait shifts in response to environmental change Selection acts on traits at both the community level, determining community assembly, and at the population level, determining the outcome of evolution. Selection at both scales combines with phenotypic plasticity to cause shifts in community-level mean trait values… Read more »

Do actively cycling C and N pools depend ultimately on soil P supply? Across-biome synthesis In terrestrial systems the nitrogen cycle is more open than the phosphorus cycle. New N accumulates by biological N fixation and atmospheric deposition, and is readily lost from the system when N is in excess of biological demand. In contrast,… Read more »

Response of Primary Producers and Primary Consumers to Environmental Change: from small-scale disturbances to seasonal and long-term changes This LTER SPARC Synthesis Working Group brings together LTER researchers interested in understanding how disturbances and environmental change across timescales are altering the production and transfer of organic matter from primary producers to herbivores. All ecosystems are… Read more »

Interannual variability and long term change in pelagic community structure across a latitudinal gradient Recent synthesis has shown both similarities and differences in how pelagic marine ecosystems have been influenced by cyclic and long term changes in the marine environment. The pelagic community structure synthesis group uses comparative data to test a series of conceptual… Read more »