The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a national-scale research platform for analyzing and understanding the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecology. NEON features sensor networks and experiments, linked by advanced cyberinfrastructure to record and archive ecological data for at least 30 years. Using standardized protocols and an open data policy, NEON will gather essential data for developing the scientific understanding and theory required to manage ecological challenges.

Landscapes at the Sevilleta LTER site are dominated or codominated by two perennial grasses from different biomes, Bouteloua eriopoda (black grama) from the Chihuahuan Desert and B. gracilis (blue grama) from the shortgrass steppe, and the Chihuahuan Desert shrub Larrea tridentata (creosotebush). We used a long-term removal study to examine inter-specific interactions between these dominant species, and to determine which species would eventually dominate following the removal of the others.

The known biodiversity of tardigrades in North America is limited. Less than one-fourth of the known tardigrade species have been recorded in the United States. As part of the NSF-Biotic Surveys and Inventory and Research at Undergraduate Institutions programs we are attempting to expand the known biodiversity of North American Tardigrades by sampling 23 of America’s LTER sites. This work is a collaborative effort between Fresno City College, Baker University, Brigham Young University and the Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia.  

While the study of the phylum Tardigrada has increased greatly in recent years, this research has been hampered by difficulties in obtaining reliable DNA sequence. For example, some researchers still rely solely on morphological identifications to proclaim new species, when DNA sequence would tell a different story. This poster will describe new oligonucleotides, thermal cycler parameters, DNA extraction techniques, and PCR cleanup steps designed to deal with this problem for sequencing single specimens.

Diverse plant litter mixtures frequently decompose substantially differently than expected, compared to the average of the individual component species. These strong “non-additive” effects constitute an important way in which biodiversity influences key components of below-ground ecosystem function like soil C and N cycling, and it remains unclear which plant traits drive diversity effects on soil C and N cycling.

A working group funded by the LNO examined the animal data in the EcoTrends database with the following objectives:
• To provide strategic insight into the products that might arise from use of extant animal-based data in the EcoTrends archive;
• To identify lacunae in data that compromise the development of new insights or understanding;
• To identify shortcomings in metadata that compromise development of new insights or understanding;

This Working Group session is offered by the newly NSF-funded LTER Math-Science-Partnership (MSP) Pathways to Environmental Literacy project. Presentations by panelists at this session address topics at the intersection of science teaching and learning and the myriad issues of citizenship, equity, diversity, and place. The focus areas of the Pathways project are: Biodiversity, the Water Cycle, and the Carbon Cycle.

 Most climate change research has concentrated on the direct effects of environmental change for individual species and their interactions. By affecting key foundation species and ecosystem engineers, however, climate change may have a variety of indirect that may complicate our abilities to predict the response of communities and ecosystems. In California, climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of storms over the last half century.  Storms may directly alter the structure of kelp forest food webs via disturbance.

Regime shifts from grasslands to shrublands in arid and semiarid ecosystems are thought to be irreversible, similar to state changes in other systems. We analyze long-term data from the Jornada Basin LTER site to determine if a directional change in climate provides an opportunity to reverse this conversion in the Chihuahuan Desert. We compare historical dynamics based on 140 years of landscape change (1858-1998) with 18 years (1990-2007) of detailed ecosystem responses under a variable climate to predict future responses under either a directional increase or decrease in rainfall.

Join us for an update on the progress of the EcoTrends project, an introduction to the functionality of the new EcoTrends website (http://www.ecotrends.info), lessons learned during the project, and a description of plans for the future. We will also use this time to solicit and discuss ideas on how to better incorporate and display data via database design, web services and tools (e.g., mapping, analysis tools, modeling tools, and customizable features) that will further engage and support the research and information management community.