This session is intended both for social and biophysical scientists who want to help develop a proposal for the kind of “multi-site, highly collaborative and integrated research initiative” envisioned by the LTER planning group. The focus will be on what the LTER planning process calls the “centerpiece” of the group's conceptual framework, as well as one of “Grand Challenges” to be addressed at the network level – “the dynamics of coupled human-natural ecosystems.”

The conversion of agricultural and rural lands for development purposes reflects one of the greatest threats to key ecosystem services in the United States. This poster addresses land use change dynamics in southern Florida, linking them to local governance-zoning institutions. Study of land use and zoning patterns informs broader questions of relevance to the LTER, including: “What is the pattern of land and water use change in urban and working systems: what are the temporal and spatial patterns of human activity and ecosystem dynamics in LTER regions?

A major goal of the Florida Coastal Everglades LTER research program is to investigate how changes in freshwater flow related to Everglades ecosystem restoration will impact ecosystem processes, specifically in the Shark River Slough/Gulf of Mexico and the Taylor Slough/Florida Bay ecotones of Everglades National Park. This research is as much a question about natural processes as it is social processes.

Land uses and management practices in residential parcels (e.g., aesthetic/recreational/economic uses, land-cover choices, irrigation and chemical applications) impact and are impacted by social (e.g., stratification and status, environmental perceptions, zoning) and ecological (e.g., carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, water demand and quality) processes.

The prospect for long term, interdisciplinary research continues to grow since the "regionalizing" of the Coweeta and North Temperate Lakes LTER sites and the initiation of the two urban LTER sites: Baltimore and Central-Arizona-Phoenix. Additional sites have recruited social scientists and expanded both the questions asked and the geographic extent of their interests. Thus, there is growing opportunities for collaboration among sites that might not identify themselves as "urban," in conjunction with the existing regional and urban sites. 

Most aspects of the structure and function of Earth’s ecosystems can no longer be understood without accounting for the strong, and often dominant influence of humanity across space and time. Human land-use practices in particular are fundamental determinants of local, regional, and global ecological processes. The consequences of such practices are evident across diverse scales influencing the sustainability of landscapes and ultimately the quality of human life.

Parcel-level data provide fine grained information concerning the role of human activity in changing the quantity and quality of ecosystem services. Coweeta’s synoptic sampling program seeks to understand anthropogenic sources of ecosystem change by focusing on a range of distinct landscapes. Comparative views of these landscapes reveal correlations between changes in the flowpaths, habitats, and human communities.

Social scientists, policymakers, and the public need to understand how inhabitants of exurbanized areas think about and perceive their land. This study used a combination of the PhotoVoice and participatory GIS method to capture these perceptions. Our results show that while exurban development is commonly discussed as a phenomenon related to “sprawl”, people do not actually perceive development as systemic, but instead focus on development patches that are located in restricted locations.

Both natural processes (e.g., erosion, vegetative succession) and human processes (e.g., prehistoric shell deposition, modern clearing) have impacted the structure of back-barrier islands on the coast of Georgia. Both types of processes have occurred continually throughout the past and present. Present-day-back-barrier islands cannot be understood without a thorough knowledge of their landscape history. For a full understanding of coastal ecosystems, they need to be viewed as human ecosystems that are the result of both natural and human processes.