Assessing the resilience of productivity to climate variability across management and climate gradients
The patterns and drivers of primary production are the foundation of ecosystems and food webs worldwide, and the products of primary production drive global carbon cycling and provide food and other key resources to people. Few studies that compare the patterns and drivers of primary production across multiple ecosystems, however, focus on managed ecosystems (e.g., rangelands, croplands), even though managed ecosystems are the predominant type across the globe. This synthesis group supplements natural ecosystem data from the LTER with data from two other prominent research networks—the Nutrient Network (NutNet) and the Long-Term Agricultural Research Network (LTAR)—to examine how management status and climate affect the resilience of primary production. The diverse working group has expertise in resilience theory, climate change, ecosystem ecology, and sustainable agriculture, spanning a variety of career stages and institutions. Results from this effort are important for land use decisions and global carbon cycle modeling.
