Large and complex watersheds, as result of complex topography, characterize the Mexican landscape. And although water for human consumption is becoming more limited as water demands increase, there is incomplete information on current and future water availability. As water resources become scarce, it is not clear how ecosystem services of economic critical ecosystems will be impacted due to limited water supply in Mexico. The objective of this project is to evaluate how ecosystem resiliency capacity is controlled by the hydrological connectivity in a variety of Mexican ecosystems.

Microbial-mesofaunal interactions are known to play a significant role in the decomposition process and many researchers have examined interactions between microbes and common decomposer fauna (i.e. Acari and Collembola) under laboratory conditions. Biological succession in soil and litter has also been studied extensively in the field, however, few experiments have examined the concurrent succession of microbial and faunal communities. We propose that until this is done, our understanding of how microbial-faunal interactions influence decomposition will be incomplete.

The distribution of mangrove biomass and forest structure along Shark River estuary in the Florida Coastal Everglades (FCE) has been correlated with elevated total phosphorus concentration in soils thought to be associated with storm events. The passage of Hurricane Wilma across Shark River estuary in 2005 allowed us to test this hypothesis by sampling chemical properties and spatial pattern of sediment deposits in mangrove forests along FCE sites in December 2005 and October 2006. The thickness (0.5 to 4.5 cm) of hurricane sediment deposits decreased with distance inland at each site.

Palmer LTER has as its focus the marine continental shelf and marginal sea ice zone ecosystems off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is a marine pelagic and coastal site strongly influenced by the formation, extent, duration and retreat of sea ice. Over the past several decades sea ice duration has declined by 90 days and no longer persists into the summer period in our study region. At the same time, the mean wintertime (DJF) surface air temperature has increased by 6°C.