Project summary: Dissolved organic matter (DOM) provides a significant source of energy and nutrients to ecosystems and its biogeochemical cycling is inextricably linked to dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN). In stream ecosystems in particular, there is considerable spatial and temporal variation in the relationships between the different fractions of DOM (dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen) and DIN…. Read more »
Metacommunity ecology considers both the local- and regional-scale factors that influence community assembly. Previous work has identified dispersal, niche differentiation, and habitat heterogeneity as crucial parameters that determine metacommunity dynamics and stability in response to disturbance. However, it remains unclear whether the parameter combinations that are predicted to confer stability do so over long time… Read more »
Project Summary: Many global change drivers (GCDs) lead to chronic alterations in resource availability. As communities change through time in response to these GCDs, the magnitude and direction of ecosystem responses is also predicted to change in a non-linear fashion. We propose to examine whether plant community dynamics are predictive of shifts in ecosystem function… Read more »
Mention “diversity” to most ecologists, and they start talking about species richness. Indeed, LTER leads the way investigating how biodiversity enhances ecosystem productivity, efficiency, and stability. The LTER Network has an opportunity to likewise take a prominent leadership role fostering a diverse scientific community and supporting the full inclusion and participation of all its members…. Read more »
Background: The range of sites within the LTER network provides an excellent opportunity to understand aquatic and soil OM (organic matter) dynamics in diverse ecosystems in order to develop overarching hypotheses about OM dynamics on a larger scale in the context of the global carbon cycle. Dissolved organic material (DOM) is a major pool of… Read more »
Goals. I propose a working group on coastal wetland ecology and geomorphology that will meet four times before April 2013 to develop and submit a Macrosystems Biology proposal to NSF. This working group proposal grew out of a working group (Modeling Wetland Processes) organized by S. Pennings and A. Burd at the 2012 LTER ASM,… Read more »
Contrary to the predictions stemming from the nitrogen saturation hypothesis (Stoddard, 1994), some forested long-term research sites in Eastern North America exhibit peak streamwater nitrate exports during the growing season. Some initial hypotheses about climatic controls (Mullholland and Hill, 1997) have recently been questioned (Goodale et al., 2009). This is a proposal to fund a… Read more »
The goals of this proposed LTER Synthesis Working Group are (1) to initiate and coordinate the integration of data from multiple sites on stream ecosystem responses to nutrient amendment, (2) to synthesize these data with a quantitative evaluation of functional responses at the microbial, primary producer, consumer and whole-stream levels, (3) to produce an NSF… Read more »
Climate change alters ecosystem and community properties and although inter-annual variation occurs year-round (Dominguez et al. 2012), most research on the response of ecosystems to climate change occurs during the primary growing season (e.g. Knapp et al. 2002) or uses annual averages that homogenize across seasons (e.g. Knapp & Smith 2001, Hsu et al. 2012)…. Read more »
Objectives We are requesting funds to assemble a working group of scientists (primarily LTER and ILTER) with interest and experience in designing and conducting climate change experiments. Our goal is to continue to design a network-level experiment, proposed previously as part of the LTER Decadal Planning process, to manipulate rainfall (i.e., impose drought) in terrestrial… Read more »
