Numerous physical, chemical, and biological processes operate in positive feedback loops during the invasion of C3 shrubs into C4 grasslands. These processes occur at multiple spatial and temporal scales, ranging from a few mm2 over a period of weeks to hundreds of km2 over a period of millennia.

The distribution of Adélie penguins along the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is spatially heterogeneous. Large Adélie colonies occur spatially in regions characterized by deep seafloor canyons. Often associated with these regions is persistent upwelling of warm, nutrient-rich UCDW, which is hypothesized to provide a predictable food resource close to the colonies such that they can be accessed by the penguins given their limited foraging range.

Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colonies in off the western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) are undergoing changes in population size that have been correlated with climate-driven alteration of the marine and terrestrial environment. Climate-associated changes in the environment may affect chick growth processes which are important because large chicks are more likely to recruit to the breeding population and Adelie penguin population dynamics can correlate with fledging mass.

The metacommunity framework integrates species-specific responses to environmental gradients to detect emergent patterns of species organization. More specifically, a metacommunity is a set of ecological communities that are potentially linked by dispersal, with each community being a group of species at a particular site.

Soil temperature is one of the key determinants of carbon flux, nutrient availability, decomposition rates, and primary productivity in high-elevation and high-latitude ecosystems. Global climate models predict that as air temperatures rise there will be a corresponding increase in soil temperature and a longer snow-free season.

The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is experiencing one of the most rapid climate change signals on Earth and recent reports have documented a change in the phytoplankton biomass in the WAP over the last three decades. These reports utilized monthly averaged decadal satellite climatologies. To complement that satellite based effort, we use the 18-year LTER time series collected at Palmer Station to study seasonal and inter-annual variability in the phytoplankton biomass and community composition.

A Webb Slocum glider was launched on Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) launched out of the U.S. Palmer Research Station. The glider mission covered >600 km, providing >1400 ocean profiles. The glider profiles, in combination with Adélie penguin foraging data (from penguins tagged with ARGOS-linked tracking instruments), showed that Adélie penguins in the area of Palmer station forage just at the base of the chlorophyll maximum, which may provide improved visibility for these visual foragers.

The experimental research in Salatín (Western Tatra Mts., Slovakia) address the impact of nitrogen (N) deposition on ecosystem of alpine grasslands. The site was exposed during last 50 years to high acid deposition with maximum rates of wet deposition at least 15–20 kg N ha-1 yr-1 and 20–25 kg S ha-1 yr-1. The experiment consists of 5 replicated treatments: 20, 60, and 150 Kg N ha-1 yr-1, 50 Kg P ha-1 yr-1 and the control, 25 plots in total.

Bonanza Creek LTER focuses on the Alaskan boreal forest. The forest provides important ecosystem services that include tangible benefits for the communities that reside in Interior Alaska.  Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) such as berries, mushrooms, firewood, and birch bark are key resources that are gathered from the landscape. NTFPs are harvested for subsistence, cultural, personal, and commercial purposes.