Recent experience
by the authors in synthesizing NPP data across the LTER network of
sites clearly demonstrated the need for improvements in the quality,
documentation and standardization of NPP measurements. Two recent
workshops were subsequently devoted to outlining a volume that would
provide guidelines to enable more accurate and well-documented long-term
measurements of NPP at field sites throughout the world’s biomes.
Although many of the principles and approaches for NPP measurements
are described in the existing literature, this volume would provide
a synthesis and integration of this literature in a form that is more
readily accessible and comprehensive in its coverage of topics. The
targeted audience for this volume would include ecologists and information
managers at LTER, International LTER, Organization of Biological Field
Stations sites and other field research facilities.
The problems associated with standardization of of NPP measurements
are quite different from soils and in particular, site-specific features
of vegetation composition and structure, even within biomes, precludes
specifying optimal procedures for NPP measurements, Instead, a set
of principles and standards for guiding practitioners in designing
and documenting their NPP measurement activities will serve as on
overall theme for this volume.
Products:
-Data set: Aboveground
NPP at 11 LTER sites
-Publication: "Variation Among Biomes in Temporal Dynamics of
Aboveground Primary Production." Knapp, Alan K. and Melinda D.
Smith. Science. 921: 481-484.
View the abstract on the Science website
- Newsletter article: "Cross-site
Study Exemplifies the Value of LTER Network"
-Principles and Standards for Measuring Net Primary Production
in Long-Term Ecological Studies (Timothy J. Fahey and Alan K.
Knapp, eds) volume from Oxford University Press (to be published 2003)
For
more information:
Robert B. Waide
rwaide@lternet.edu
505/272-7316 or 7278
