2009 LTER All Scientists Meeting - Core Research Areas

The Malawi Environmental Observatory Network(MEON): Constitution, Strategy and Implementation Plan

James Chimphamba — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:37:05 +0000

Poster Number:

381

Presenter/Primary Author:

James Chimphamba

Malawi is a land of farmers and facing rampant environmental problems whose capability for restoration is made dimmer by the looming shadow of climate change and variability. The Malawi Environmental Observatory Network is a small candle flickering with light for identification of prioritized environmental problems and setting of the road map of how such monumental problems could efficiently be tackled with the available meager resources.

Denitrification in desert soils: Importance of Fungi

Yevgeniy Marusenko — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:44:08 +0000

Poster Number:

378

Presenter/Primary Author:

Yevgeniy Marusenko

Co-Authors:

David Huber

Co-Authors:

Sharon Hall

Denitrification is a key step returning nitrogen from soils to the atmosphere. The primary denitrifiers in most ecosystems are heterotrophic bacteria. Although, fungi are also known to transform nitrogen compounds, such as the production of N2O, but few studies have explored this process in soils. Aridland systems experience high temperatutres and low moisture conditions, favoring fungi in these environments. Thus, we explored the role of fungi and bacteria in denitrification of Sonoran Desert soils.

Comparison of soil respiration in young and old forests in the White Mountains of New Hampshire

Kikang Bae — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:33:04 +0000

Poster Number:

367

Presenter/Primary Author:

Kikang Bae

Co-Authors:

TImothy J. Fahey

Co-Authors:

Ruth D. Yanai

Co-Authors:

Byung Bae Park

Soil respiration is a major pathway of flux in the terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycle and has received a great deal of attention recently. This is largely because even a small change in soil respiration can exacerbate the annual input of CO2 into the atmosphere. Soil respiration represents the combined respiration of roots and soil micro- and macro-organisms, and a number of studies on soil respiration have been undertaken in a variety of ecosystems.

Student Poster:

Yes

Modeling Hydrochemical Responses to Climate Change at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest over the 21st Century Using a Dynamic Biogeochemical Model (PnET-BGC)

Afshin Pourmokhtarian — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:46:24 +0000

Poster Number:

360

Presenter/Primary Author:

Afshin Pourmokhtarian

Co-Authors:

Charles T. Driscoll

Co-Authors:

John L. Campbell

Dynamic biogeochemical watershed models are the only practical approach that can predict concurrent exposure to multiple environmental factors and consider interactive effects between climate change, atmospheric deposition and CO2 fertilization effect. Therefore, they could be powerful tools to help to understand the long-term effects of climate change on ecosystems.

Student Poster:

Yes

Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research

Marcia Nation — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:54:26 +0000

Poster Number:

357

Presenter/Primary Author:

Nancy Grimm

Co-Authors:

Charles Redman

The Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) project is based in the central Arizona and metropolitan Phoenix region, embedded in the Sonoran Desert. As the fifth-largest and, until recently, the fastest-growing city in the US, Phoenix is an excellent location for urban ecological research. Phoenix was established after the Civil War, initially one of several small towns surrounded by irrigated farmland. Continued agrarian expansion predated the explosive growth of housing in the second half of the 20th century.

Relative timing and magnitude of response by plants, microbes and soil fauna to an experimental precipitation event on the Shortgrass Steppe L

Sallie Sprague — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:32:59 +0000

Poster Number:

356

Presenter/Primary Author:

Joe Von_Fischer

Co-Authors:

A. Angert, D. Augustine, C. Brown, F. Dijkstra, J. Derner, N. Hanan,

Co-Authors:

R. Hufbauer, N. Fierer, D. Milchunas, J. Moore, H. Stelzer, M. Wallenstein

A key climatic feature of the Shortgrass Steppe is the summertime pattern of moderate to large precipitation events, separated by weeks of hot, dry conditions. These precipitation events have potential to revive plants, microbes and soil fauna that became less active in the intervening dry period, and thus structure ecosystem-scale patterns including net carbon exchange.

SEVILLETA LTER Abiotic Pulses and Constraints: Dynamics and stability in an aridland ecosystem

Scott Collins — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:57:53 +0000

Poster Number:

352

Presenter/Primary Author:

Scott Collins

Co-Authors:

Cliff Dahm

Co-Authors:

Marchy Litvak

Co-Authors:

Will Pockman

Co-Authors:

Kristin Vanderbilt

Co-Authors:

Esteban Muldavin

Co-Authors:

Bob Sinsabaugh

Co-Authors:

Blair Wolf

The Sevilleta LTER is located at the intersection of several aridland ecosystem types. Although it is axiomatic that water is the key limiting resource in aridland ecosystems, most arid land soils are also chronically low in nutrients and organic matter. Resource availability is a function of the frequency and size of precipitation events as well as the time between events. As a consequence, NPP and organic matter decomposition are often decoupled in space and time, and soil nutrient supply rates may limit NPP during periods when soil moisture is sufficient for plant growth.

Arctic LTER: Goals and Results

John Hobbie — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:38:57 +0000

Poster Number:

347

Presenter/Primary Author:

John Hobbie

Co-Authors:

George Kling

Co-Authors:

Chris Luecke

Co-Authors:

Gus Shaver

Co-Authors:

Anne Giblin

Co-Authors:

Donie Bret-Harte

The goal of the Arctic LTER is to predict the future ecological characteristics of Arctic Alaska based upon our knowledge of the controls of ecosystem structure and function as exerted by physical setting and geologic factors, climatic factors, biotic factors, and the changes in fluxes of water and materials from land to water.

Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve’s LTER Program

Jeffrey Corney — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:21:19 +0000

Poster Number:

340

Presenter/Primary Author:

Jeffrey Corney

Co-Authors:

David Tilman

Co-Authors:

Sarah Hobbie

Co-Authors:

Peter Reich

Co-Authors:

Stephen Polasky

The Cedar Creek LTER (CDR) is housed at the University of Minnesota’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (CCESR), an internationally renowned ecological research and education facility, located 35 miles north of the Twin Cities. Established in 1942, Cedar Creek encompasses 2,200 hectares of land comprised of a unique and diverse mosaic of forests, savannas, prairies, wetlands, and open water.

The PIE-LTER

Anne Giblin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:42:05 +0000

Poster Number:

314

Presenter/Primary Author:

Anne Giblin

Co-Authors:

L. Deegan

Co-Authors:

C. Hopkonson

Co-Authors:

J. Hobbie

Co-Authors:

R. Buchsbaum

Co-Authors:

G. Pontius

Co-Authors:

J. Morris

Co-Authors:

M. Mather

Co-Authors:

B. Peterson

Co-Authors:

J. Vallino

Co-Authors:

W. Wollheim

Coastal ecosystems play a key role in the transformation, transport, burial and exchange of water and organic and inorganic carbon and nitrogen between land, atmosphere and the ocean. With an overwhelming majority of the human population living in the coastal zone, coastal ecosystems are among the most heavily impacted ecosystems in the world. Like many other coastal regions, the Plum Island Ecosystem region, which lies just north of Boston, Massachusetts, is experiencing population growth in the watershed, land use change, climate change, altered hydrologic cycles, and sea level rise.