Research at the FCE-LTER builds on a substantial body of knowledge about oligotrophic estuaries. In particular, we study how changes in hydrology caused by human activities interact with natural disturbances and sea-level rise to affect dynamics in the estuarine ecotone of the Everglades. The greater Everglades ecosystem is the site of the world’s largest ecosystem restoration efforts, with aims to restore freshwater flow into this highly engineered landscape.

Surface/groundwater water interactions are defined as the exchange of water across the soil/sediment water interface. In the Everglades National Park (ENP), these interactions may be important not only for the transport of water, but also for the transport of nutrients and chemicals. The Everglades ecosystem is drained by two major water ways: Shark and Taylor Slough. Sloughs are depressions with slightly deeper water than in the adjacent marshes. Taylor Slough is located in the southeastern corner of ENP and regulates Florida Bay fresh water inflows.

Seven years of oceanic and meteorological monitoring data have been collected in the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER domain from 2002-2009 in order to understand the spatial and temporal patterns of temperature and salinity across the domain. Empirical orthogonal function analysis shows that temperature changes with time are dominated by 1 principal component (explains 93% of the variability) which is strongly correlated with atmospheric fluxes.

An aspect of climate change in California has been an increase in the intensity and frequency of winter storms. Disturbance from storms is a major source of variation in the standing biomass of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera, a competitive dominant on shallow reefs that forms a dense overstory canopy at the sea surface. Climate induced changes in the standing biomass of Macrocystis are expected to have a profound effect on the assemblage of subordinate understory macroalgae.

 Most climate change research has concentrated on the direct effects of environmental change for individual species and their interactions. By affecting key foundation species and ecosystem engineers, however, climate change may have a variety of indirect that may complicate our abilities to predict the response of communities and ecosystems. In California, climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of storms over the last half century.  Storms may directly alter the structure of kelp forest food webs via disturbance.

Fish predation is an important disturbance affecting corals, yet few studies have compared the response of multiple coral species to one or more modes of fish predation. The present study differs from previous work on this topic by utilizing short-term field experiments, and testing the effects of corallivory on life stages (i.e., small or juvenile colonies) that are thought to be sensitive with regards to the effects of damage, and which play important roles in population growth.

In coastal peatlands, factors related to global climate change are expected to alter the flux of CO2 from soils to the atmosphere. Plant-soil feedbacks are expected to yield increased ecosystem stability, and strong feedback is often expressed in coastal systems, especially in peatlands. However, peatland characteristics that influence these feedbacks are not well studied, and could elucidate a better understanding of C dynamics.

Studies suggest that high-latitude plants should be more palatable to herbivores than low-latitude conspecifics. Few studies, however, have examined whether this increased plant palatability indicates better plant quality for herbivores. We worked with three plant species and six associated herbivores along the U.S. Atlantic Coast to examine whether plant quality for herbivores increases with latitudes, and whether herbivores show local adaptation to plants from their own geographic regions.

 Tropical reef ecosystems lie at the interface of productive, populated terrestrial coastlines and unproductive, oligotrophic oceanic waters. Corals and other dominant reef organisms maintain complex symbiotic interactions with both surficial and planktonic aquatic microbial communities, but the processes defining the composition and life history of these communities are poorly understood.

The barrier islands of the Virginia Coast Reserve LTER site provide an opportunity to study interisland variability of dune plant communities. Our research focused on the variation in biomass and diversity of communities among islands and dune positions. Grassy dunes of young, intermediate and old age were sampled on Smith, Hog, and Parramore Islands. Above- and belowground biomass were obtained from harvest plots and roots were extracted from cores. Data were also collected on depth to groundwater and total soil nitrogen.