An International Summer School

The GCOE-INeT international summer school, a field training program focused on “Frontier in Ecosystem Ecology of Northern Forests,” was held June 14-20, 2009 in the Hokkaido University’s experimental forests. The experimental forests are part of the Japan Long-Term Ecological Research Network (JaLTER) and GCOE-INeT is one of Hokkaido University’s educational programs funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (see www.ees.hokudai.ac.jp/gcoe/en/index.html for further information on the GCOE). Nineteen Ph.D students from eight countries (Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines and UK) participated in the program.
]]> A report of an ASM working group, September 2009

Of all the ecosystem services, a sustainable supply of high-quality water may be the most important. Streamflow from forests provides two-thirds of the water supply in the United States. Nationwide, high quality water supplies depend entirely on a range of natural ecosystem types. Climate change, drought, outbreaks of insects and pathogens, wildfire, and ecological succession are altering ecosystems’ ability to provide abundant, clean water from the headwaters of our water-supply systems.
]]> ]]> www.azstarnet.com/sn/education/300136.php and www.societyforscience.org/intelisef09/intelisef09gao.pdf for additional information).]]> *LATE BREAKING NEWS: Sally Koerner elected LTER Graduate Student Co-Chair to replace Amber Hardison*

LTER graduate students gathered for their third Graduate Student Symposium (GSS) on September 13th, 2009, at Estes Park, CO, before the formal opening of the All Scientists Meeting. Based on student feedback about previous graduate student symposia, this symposium was designed to inform newer students about the general structure of the LTER network, to expose participating students to ongoing LTER social research, and to foster cross-site collaborations among students. ]]> *Personal Experience*

It has been ten years since I first saw the Georgia coastal ecosystems – as a visiting scientist at the University of Georgia Marine Institute (UGAMI), Sapelo Island. Two years earlier, I had met my host, Steve Pennings, at the Bamfield Marine Station (now: Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre). During my two months’ stay at Sapelo, we worked together on the decomposition of saltmarsh detritus of different origin through the action of different saltmarsh detritivores, finally confirming interspecific differences in the contributions of various detritivore species to the decomposition of various common species of detritus in saltmarshes. ]]> Colleagues pay tribute to a stalwart of LTER Information Management and Science

Barbara J. Benson, information manager and scientist at the North Temperate Lakes (NTL) LTER for 26 years as and former chair of the LTER Network Information Management Committee, has retired. Barbara retired in October 2009, but will continue several aspects of her research and utilize her information management talents as an emeritus member of the Center for Limnology and the NTL LTER team.]]> Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment).]]> After a very successful workshop in October, a new network is formed to focus on secondary forest regeneration and restoration.]]> Ecology researchers to share ideas and discuss results from long term research

ALBUQUERQUE, NM (September 9, 2009)—Interactions among ecosystem services and human behavior, how to influence policy makers, and teaching ecological complexity through field science inquiry, are just a few of the subjects to be addressed at the 7th Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) All-Scientists Meeting (ASM), to be held from September 13-16, 2009, in Estes Park, CO. The meeting is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds LTER.]]> http://intranet.lternet.edu/im/news/virtualupdates.]]> A joint US-LTER/Mex-LTER meeting

In January, 2009, the Ecosistemas Costeros de la Peninsula de Yucatan (ECOPEY) Mex-Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site and both the US LTER and RED MEX LTER Network offices hosted a workshop in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico to address the ecological role of hurricanes. With 22 scientists attending from the US and the Mexican LTER programs, and other research institutions, the workshop discussed mechanisms for developing a coordinated network of sites to address hurricane effects and responses on a variety of coastal and terrestrial ecosystems in the wider Caribbean region.
]]> http://www.ecotrends.info). Many of these datasets will be included in a book to be submitted for publication in the next few months. ]]> Remote sensing for LTER sites

The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensor aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites provides information about Earth's ecosystem characteristics and dynamics on a near-daily basis. The MODIS sensor acquires data in 36 spectral bands, which are used to produce standardized products, including phenology, land cover, primary production, vegetation characteristics (leaf area index and vegetation indices), radiation, and albedo. However, these products are generally distributed as data files covering a 1200 km square area of the earth in a data format intended for regional analysis and modeling. These large data files are not optimal for use in field investigations at individual sites (100 km x 100 km or smaller).]]> Learning progressions key to environmental literacy within LTER

Standardized test scores for middle school and high school students indicate a need for improvement in basic environmental science and related mathematical content. Surveys of teachers and science educators indicate a desire for more content-based, focused, and locally relevant professional development. The participation rates in environmental science fields do not reflect the demographics of society as a whole. Each of the preceding statements contributes to the broader dialogue on the need for an environmental science literacy framework. “Environmental science literacy”—the capacity to participate in and make decisions through evidence-based discussions of socio-ecological systems—is essential for many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers and for responsible citizenship. Environmental science literacy requires citizens to understand, evaluate, and respond to multiple sources of information.]]> potential ecological futures around Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites. They were participants in the “Scenarios of Future Landscape Change Workshop,” which was designed to encourage prescient thinking in coupled human-natural systems where true prediction is not possible. The workshop was funded by the National Science Foundation through the LTER Network Office and participants represented 16 LTER sites and all were involved in some stage of scenario planning for the region surrounding their site.
]]> Urban Long Term Research Area Exploratory Awards

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the first program solicitation for Urban Long-Term Research Area (ULTRA) Exploratory Awards—or ULTRA-Ex. The solicitation is co-sponsored by the U. S. Forest Service. The NSF and Forest Service, as a result of strategic planning in both agencies, have recognized the need to expand the knowledge of urban natural resource and human interactions, with the goals of sustaining these critical resources while creating productive and livable human environments. The new program is expected to provide $4.8 million over two years, for up to 16 awards across the United States. ]]> This is the first of what we hope will become a regular column featuring humor, personal experiences, and reminiscences about life as an LTER researcher.

Being a mother and conducting field research at a remote site have a lot in common. Many summers at the Arctic LTER helped me develop relevant skills that I put to use every day with my three children. But it was Marilyn Walker who inspired me to have children more than a decade ago as she taught me about arctic botany while serving homemade cloudberry cobbler to her 5-year-old son, me, and her students at Toolik Field Station. Here are some of the lessons I learned. ]]> Dr. Whendee Silver, has been selected as a 2009 Leopold Leadership Fellow. ]]> Bonanza Creek’s artist-scientist field trip brings “Reflections” to life

Seven scientists and seven artists spent a day together in late August 2008 exploring the Tanana River floodplain ecosystem at the Bonanza Creek LTER near Fairbanks, AK. Among the artists were a poet, two landscape painters, a photographer, textile artist, singer-songwriter/educator, and a dancer-choreographer. ]]> ]]> ]]> David J. Gibson, draws heavily from studies at Konza that the author has been associated with over the years, including two color plates and several figures. According to the publisher, Oxford University Press (OUP), Grasses and Grassland Ecology is the only ecologically-orientated introduction to grasslands available at the moment. ]]> A critical tool for enabling adaptive responses to climate change

Phenology is a sensitive measure of climatic variation and change, is relatively simple to record and understand, and is vital to both the scientific and public interest with or without climate change. Integration of spatially-extensive phenological data and models with both short and long-term climatic forecasts offer a powerful and necessary agent for human adaptation to ongoing climate change. However, the predictive potential of phenology requires a new data resource—a national network of integrated phenological observations and the tools to access and analyze them at multiple scales.
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In summer 2007, the Andrews Forest LTER Program hosted Research for Undergraduate (REU) students Farm Saechao and Julia Pederson. ]]> The LINX experience

Recently a paper appeared in Nature (Mulholland et al. 2008) covering some of the core results of the second phase of the Lotic Intersite Nitrogen Experiment, known as LINX. This large, cross-site study has been funded by NSF and includes a number of LTER sites and investigators. In this article we relate our experience with publicizing the work, which evidently has been successful.
]]> www.lternet.edu/decadalplan. ]]> http://www.lternet.edu/dp). The plan’s goals are ambitious but realistic, forward-looking, and directed towards taking the Network to the next level of synthetic science. Three years of meetings, workshops, and collaborative writing went into the plan, and its delivery to NSF marked a milestone in providing the larger scientific community our vision of where LTER science is headed.]]> Agrarian Landscapes in Transition: Comparisons of Long-Term Ecological & Cultural Change by Charles Redman and David R. Foster examines human interaction with the earth, according to a description provided by OUP. Among other things, the book examines what happens when humans impose their spatial and temporal signatures on ecological regimes, and how this manipulation affects the earth and nature's desire for equilibrium.]]> ‘Frontiers’ special issue highlights LTER work

Scientists have long suspected that the world’s ecosystems were interconnected in more ways than might appear at first glance. Now, a group of Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) scientists and their non-LTER colleagues have taken an in-depth look at this very issue in a series of articles published in a special issue of the Ecological Society of America’s Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Issue 5, Volume 6 of June 2008. ]]> Lotic Intersite Nitrogen eXperiment (LINX), a long term, NSF-funded study whose results were recently published in the scientific journal, Nature. ]]> Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site provided the keynote address at the Baltimore Watershed Conference on March 1, 2008. The Conference celebrated the announcement of the Baltimore Watershed Agreement by Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith, and City of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon. The two leaders confirmed their commitment to working jointly to improve the environmental quality and sustainability of these important land-water resources. They charged a blue ribbon Committee of Principals, representing the action agencies and community leaders in both the City and County, with recommending priorities to the two jurisdictional executive leaders for activities advancing each of the five goals for improving watershed sustainability in metropolitan Baltimore: 1) community greening, 2) development and restoration, 3) stormwater management, 4) trash as a contaminant, and 5) public health. For the text of the agreement and more on what each of these goals might encompass see http://resources.baltimorecountymd.gov/Documents/Environment/Watersheds/watershedgree06.pdf ]]> Limnology & Oceanography, North Temperate Lakes (NTL) LTER and University of Wisconsin at Madison researchers John Magnuson, Olaf Jensen and Barbara Benson reported that winter ice cover over lakes, rivers, and ponds in the region are lasting fewer and fewer days.]]> ]]> Global Change and the Ecology of Cities”published in the journal Science, CAP LTER principal investigator Nancy Grimm and colleagues argue that much of the current environmental impact of climate change originates in cities, so the increasing growth of cities should see similar growth in their urban footprint. ]]> www.lternet.edu/news/Article151.html). ]]> www.rff.org/rff/News/Features/NSF_Report.cfm.]]> ]]>
In October 2005, hurricane Wilma severely disrupted the Florida Everglades ecosystem. Fringing mangrove forests exposed to hurricane-level winds were effectively destroyed, while more sheltered forests were severely damaged. At the FCE-LTER flux tower site (SRS-6), about a third of the trees were destroyed and roughly 3 cm of carbonate mud added on the mangrove forest floor. All instruments on the flux tower were also destroyed (Figure 1) and the tower itself damaged beyond repair and had to be replaced. The boardwalks and supporting structures also had to be re-built. ]]> Research Experience for Teachers (RET)
Larry Byman, a Biology and Environmental Field Studies teacher in Longview, Washington, worked with Andrews Forest scientists during the 2006 field season to learn about long-term data collection and data management techniques. Based on what he learned at the Andrews Forest, Byman developed an environmental curriculum for use at the Longview District’s Wake Robin Outdoor Learning Center. “This ranks as one of the absolute best learning experiences I’ve had during my teaching career,” said Byman. His lessons cover topics such as litter decomposition, moth diversity, soil seed bank, stream cross sections, and tree growth rates. Byman’s lessons are available through the Wake Robin Outdoor Learning Center’s website, www.longview.k12.wa.us/wr/LTER.

Kurt Cox, a junior high science teacher from the McKenzie School District, developed a set of research activities on the McKenzie High School grounds which is based upon research being conducted at the Andrews Forest. The seventh and eighth-graders will visit the Andrews LTER site in the fall and spring to conduct vegetation surveys, examine log decomposition, and measure stream structure.

More information on educational activities of the Andrews Forest program is available at www.fsl.orst.edu/lter/edu/schoolyard/ret.cfm?topnav=156.

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]]> www.lakemetabolism.org; http://gleon.org), and my visit there was part of a growing collaboration between individual LTER sites and the Taiwan Ecological Research Network (TERN).]]> Dr. Clyde Goulden, Director of The Academy' of Natural Sciences Institute for Mongolian Biodiversity and Ecological Studies, has been awarded the Friendship Medal for his contributions to Mongolia’s development.
]]> “Long-Term Dynamics of Lakes in the Landscape: Long-Term Ecological Research on North Temperate Lakes,” has received a glowing review in the June 2007 issue of Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin. ]]> ZooGoer magazine, a membership publication of the Friends of the National Zoo published online by the Smithsonian Institution. ]]> ]]> National Geographic magazine explores the tallgrass prairie ecosystem in the heartland of the United States. ]]> Science, whose focus is the International Polar Year ( IPY), features an article entitled "Boom and Bust in a Polar Hot Zone" by science writer Erik Stokstad that highlights research by Palmer LTER. ]]> ]]> the imagination of readers far and wide. ]]> By David R. Foster, John F. O’Keefe ]]> Alaska’s Changing Boreal Forest By Chapin, F.S., III, M.W. Oswood, K. Van Cleve, L.A. Viereck, and D.L. Verbyla (editors). 2006. Oxford University Press, New York.]]> The LTER Network Office (LNO) is coordinating access by LTER sites to historical and recent satellite reconnaissance data, as well as MODIS time series subsets and imagery from the International Space Station. This effort is to provide access for LTER sites to data that are acquired and archived by collaborating partners, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Information on these and other LTER Network remote sensing data is available on the LTER remote sensing and GIS information page at www.lternet.edu/technology/ltergis/.]]> The Journey to El Yunque middle school ecology curriculum isn’t just another sugarcoated science project that’s long on fun and short on real learning. According to Dr. Steven McGee, Principal Investigator of Journey to El Yunque and president of The Learning Partnership, a rigorous, standards-based evaluation of the curriculum has confirmed that students using the Journey to El Yunque curriculum gained greater understanding of population dynamics than a comparison group using a traditional ecology curriculum.]]> New LTER book captures children’s fascination with Antarctica.]]> Researchers seek new ways to study ecological processes.]]> All Things Considered on Saturday, April 22 (Earth Day) carried an item about the NSF-funded BES residential carbon study. ]]> http://sols.asu.edu/faculty/jcollins.php), as head of Biological Sciences following the retirement of Dr Mary E. Clutter.]]> Science magazine.]]>