2009 LTER All Scientists Meeting - Disturbance Patterns

Long-Term Trends in Spatial Partitioning of Biodiversity: Considerations of Disturbance and Recovery

Christopher Bloch — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:57:35 +0000

Poster Number:

379

Presenter/Primary Author:

Christopher Bloch

Co-Authors:

Christopher Higgins

Co-Authors:

Michael Willig

Patterns of biodiversity at large spatial scales (i.e., γ diversity) can be driven by either within-community (α) or among-community (β) components. The degree to which α or β components contribute to γ diversity may depend on the amount of environmental variation that exists in the spatial extents studied. However, few studies have assessed both spatial configuration and temporal changes in biodiversity, especially in systems that frequently experience large-scale disturbance.

Niwot Ridge LTER Program: Alpine Ecosystems as Early Warning Systems

Mark Williams — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:42:43 +0000

Poster Number:

377

Presenter/Primary Author:

Mark Williams

Co-Authors:

Tim Seastedt

Co-Authors:

Diane McKnight

Co-Authors:

Alan Townsend

Co-Authors:

Bill Bowman

Co-Authors:

Steve Schmidt

Co-Authors:

Peter Blanken

The Niwot Ridge (NWT) LTER site was one of the five original LTER sites established in 1980. The LTER program is based at the University of Colorado-Boulder and is administered through the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) and in cooperation with the Mountain Research Station, with special use permits from the US Forest Service.

A New Network for Hurricane Researchers

Robert Waide — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:25:49 +0000

Poster Number:

373

Presenter/Primary Author:

Robert Waide

Co-Authors:

Nick Brokaw

Co-Authors:

Evelyn Gaiser

The U.S. and Mexican LTER Networks are cooperating in the development of a new network of hurricane researchers.

The California Current Ecosystem (CCE) LTER Site

Mark Ohman — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:58:20 +0000

Poster Number:

369

Presenter/Primary Author:

Mark Ohman

Co-Authors:

24 coauthors

The California Current System is a coastal upwelling biome, as found along the eastern margins of all major ocean basins. These are among the more productive ecosystems in the world ocean. The California Current Ecosystem (CCE) LTER site (centered on 32.9° N, 120.3° W) is investigating nonlinear transitions in the California Current coastal pelagic ecosystem, with particular attention to long-term forcing by a secular warming trend, multi-decadal oscillations (e.g., PDO and NPGO), and ENSO in altering the structure and dynamics of the pelagic ecosystem.

Resilience in a coral reef ecosystem: Initiation of a long-term experiment to determine the effects of multiple disturbances

Andrew Brooks — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:13:11 +0000

Poster Number:

358

Presenter/Primary Author:

Andrew Brooks

Co-Authors:

Russell J. Schmitt

Co-Authors:

Robert C. Carpenter

Co-Authors:

Peter J. Edmunds

Co-Authors:

Sally J. Holbrook

Documenting the trajectories of ecological communities following a disturbance represents one of the five core research themes central to LTER network science. Quantifying degrees of resilience, here defined as the time needed for a community to return to a previous steady or quasi-steady state following a disturbance, can be especially challenging when ecosystems experience multiple perturbations that, in combination, can cause complex, non-linear community responses.

Estimating ocean states during the LTER CCE-P0605 cruise using ocean data assimilation

Arthur Miller — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:12:54 +0000

Poster Number:

354

Presenter/Primary Author:

Arthur Miller

Co-Authors:

Hajoon Song

During May and June of 2006, the LTER CCE program launched a cruise off Point Conception closely following the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) line 80 and a valuable dataset was collected. These ocean variables include along-flow and cross-flow spatial gradients, vertical current shear, CTD and iron limitation.

Effects of forest die-back on soil biological and chemical characteristics of a Colorado Lodgepole pine forest

Tim Seastedt — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:03:50 +0000

Poster Number:

353

Presenter/Primary Author:

Yanmei Xiong

Co-Authors:

Tim Seastedt

A forest die-back caused by a beetle outbreak on lodgepole and limber pine was used to assess the relative importance of root inputs to the soil food web and chemistry of soils in the Colorado Front Range. We measured a suite of biological and chemical parameters at six sites containing both live and dead trees. We found an increase in amounts of soil inorganic N, decreased soil lable C, and thus a decreased soil labile C:N ratio.

Student Poster:

Yes

Thermal manipulation to trigger stresses on cold water invasive species

Jordan Read — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:42:58 +0000

Poster Number:

349

Presenter/Primary Author:

Jordan Read

Co-Authors:

Carpenter, SR

Co-Authors:

Wu, CH

Co-Authors:

Kratz, TK

Co-Authors:

Gaeta, J

Co-Authors:

Shade, A

Co-Authors:

McMahon, KD

Co-Authors:

Vander Zanden, MJ

We are investigating the feasibility of employing thermal manipulation, achieved via whole-lake destratification, to extirpate the cold water exotic rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) from Crystal Lake, WI. We focus here on the engineering implications of raising the hypolimnion water temperture to exceed the thermal range of the rainbow smelt. An energy balance approach was used to determine the timing and duration of mixing efforts to maximize heat gain and minimize loss to the atmosphere.

Student Poster:

Yes

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.

Urban streams in Puerto Rico: understanding stream ecosystems outside the Luquillo forest

Alonso Ramirez — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:13:56 +0000

Poster Number:

328

Presenter/Primary Author:

Alonso Ramirez

Co-Authors:

Sofia Burgos

Co-Authors:

Alan Covich

Co-Authors:

Todd Crowl

Co-Authors:

Augustin Engman

Co-Authors:

Debora Figueroa

Co-Authors:

Noraida Martinez

Co-Authors:

Bill McDowell

Co-Authors:

Jorge Ortiz-Zayas

Co-Authors:

Omar Perez

Co-Authors:

Colin Phillips

Co-Authors:

Cathy Pringle

Co-Authors:

Pedro Torres

Co-Authors:

Fred Scatena

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.