The vast majority of biodiversity on Earth lives in the soil; to what degree are this diversity and the ecosystem functions they perform regulated by climate and plant productivity? In this study, we seek to determine the relationship between climate/Net Primary Productivity (NPP) and soil food web structure. Research sites, each consisting of a forest and paired grassland, are located along east-west transects in Oregon; these transects encompass climates producing the greatest productivity and nearly the least productivity on the continent.

The Virginia Coast Reserve (VCR) is an extremely dynamic, heterogeneous coastal barrier landscape comprising mainland watersheds, tidal marshes, lagoons, and barrier islands. Our goal for the VCR LTER program is to develop a predictive understanding of the response of coastal barrier systems to long-term environmental changes in climate, sea level and land use, and to relate these to the ecological services the coastal barrier systems provide.

Schoolyards can serve as an extension of the science classroom and provide authentic research opportunities for students. Schoolyard science illustrates that science does not have to take place in a lab or an exotic location – it can take place wherever questions are asked and answers are sought. As extensions of the science classroom, schoolyards are also cost-effective as they are available on demand to students and teachers, and require no access fee or transportation costs.

Urbanization is one of the major threats to stream ecosystems worldwide. The phrase “urban stream syndrome” has been coined to describe patterns in degraded streams draining urban land. In Puerto Rico, urbanization now covers 16% of the island. The fully protected Luquillo Experimental Forest (focus of the LUQ-LTER) is only 23 km from the center of San Juan, a city of 1.3 million. Therefore, LUQ is assessing the impacts of urbanization on tropical stream ecosystem structure and function.

The Luquillo LTER program (LUQ) provides research experiences to undergraduate students by immersing them in its active research environment. LUQ offers a variety of programs and opportunities to undergraduate students that allow them to gain research experience and technical skills in tropical ecology. Our goals are to (1) provide students with research experiences under the advice of established scientists and (2) supplement experiences with educational activities designed to equip students with the necessary tools to conduct scientific research.

Despite substantial changes in climate, sea-ice and glacier extent, and vegetation in much of the Arctic, the area near Toolik Lake, Alaska has experienced no significant trends of increasing temperature, altered precipitation, or increasing active-layer thaw depth. There has been, however, a near doubling of alkalinity in Toolik Lake since 1975 and increases in alkalinity in many lakes of all depths and sizes in the surrounding area. Lake monitoring indicates that in-lake processes such as sulfate or nitrate reduction cannot account for these alkalinity increases.

Fragmentation of natural habitats, driven by urban growth and other land use modifications, acts to decrease the amount of core habitat as well as the connectivity among core areas. As a result, landscape fragmentation can have negative impacts on the ecological communities, ecosystem services, and metapopulation dynamics.

Imprecise, inaccurate, and inconsistent soil sampling techniques are a major source of uncertainty in the calculation of nutrient budgets. Traditional methods of soil sampling include soil coring and excavation of quantitative soil pits. The major problem encountered with soil coring is that rocky soils limit the location and depth of sampling, and therefore the soil volume is not accurately measured. Quantitative soil pits resolve the rock volume bias, but they are notoriously laborious and destructive, making repeated measurements difficult in spatially variable sites.

Accurate habitat mapping in salt marshes is important for both management and conservation goals, as it provides information essential for identifying sensitive areas and documenting changes over time as the result of sea level rise or human perturbations. The goal of this study is to characterize patterns of marsh plant distribution in the salt marshes surrounding back barrier islands (hammocks) within the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER. In the summer of 2007 the GCE LTER surveyed over 50 hammocks of different origin and size.

Cities are specific environments for testing paradigms related to water, biodiversity and resource management. Permanent interaction of a number of factors: anthropogenic, natural, social and economic, imposing pressures on environment and raising quality expectations, makes development and effective implementation of new theories and foundings a real challenge. Another challenge is general lack of paradigm linking water management and biodiversity management in urban areas.