An experimental system for sampling trace gas fluxes through seasonal snowpack was deployed at a subalpine site near treeline at Niwot Ridge, Colorado. The sampling manifold was in place throughout the entire snow-covered season for continuous air sampling with minimal disturbance to the snowpack. A series of gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, ozone, volatile organic compounds) was determined in interstitial air withdrawn at eight heights in and above the snowpack at ~hourly intervals.

Human management of landscapes is a primary cause of global environmental change. In residential landscapes, homeowner yard management can affect ecological properties and processes locally and regionally. For example, turfgrass lawns are now one of the largest irrigated crops in the U.S., contributing to high water and fertilizer use. Social drivers, such as personal values or Homeowner Association (HOA) regulations, also impact individual yard management decisions.

Green Lake 4 is an alpine lake in the Silver Lake Watershed of Boulder Colorado. Many alpine lakes similar in productivity and elevation to Green Lake 4, have shown a recent shift in diatom species. Nitrogen has been shown to be increasing in alpine lake systems of the Rocky Mountain Front Range due to atmospheric deposition. Species associated with oligotrophic systems are being replaced with more common species that are tolerant of higher nutrient concentrations. However, little is known about the role phosphorous.

The EcoTrends project is an LTER network-level synthesis program geared toward making long-term ecological data highly explorable, accessible and comparable for cross-site synthesis research. Five years of working with 50 sites (LTER, USDA ARS, USFS, and other agencies) have offered many lessons that can be utilized as we strive to improve and upgrade EcoTrends services. Here, we describe the project’s goals and products, discuss lessons learned, and lay out plans for a future system that will better serve the ecological research and information management community.

 Landscapes in the southeastern U.S. are expected to change profoundly in the next five decades. Changes in climate and land use will especially impact the rural and quasi-rural lands that still characterize much of southern Appalachia. Coweeta LTER research between 2008-14 will extend long-term measurements, field experiments and interdisciplinary modeling from small watershed studies to regional-scale analyses so as to account for increases in resource demand and competition from adjacent and more distant areas.

Appropriate quantification of the spatial distribution of lead (Pb) in urban soils requires an understanding of the influence that individual landscape features have on soil Pb concentrations as well as the importance of the larger landscape context. In order to examine patterns of residential soil Pb concentrations we employed a sampling scheme that addressed both landscape context and individual landscape features predicted to affect Pb retention. The larger landscape context was considered by examining the distance to major road networks and housing age.

     The Andrews LTER program is currently in the first year of its sixth funding cycle, “LTER6”. For nearly 30 years our research program has aimed to understand the long-term dynamics of forest and river ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest. The Central Question guiding this research has been and continues to be: How do land use, natural disturbances, and climate change affect three key sets of ecosystem services: carbon and nutrient dynamics, biodiversity, and hydrology? In LTER6 we are approaching our Central Question through new avenues.

Long-term base cation depletion from soils appears to be detrimental to the health and productivity of hardwood forests in the northeastern U.S. Understanding and predicting forest responses to acidic deposition and changes in soil chemistry would benefit from better knowledge of limitations to soil microorganisms, given their critical role mediating the supply of essential nutrients to plants.

Increased summer air temperatures in interior Alaska have caused drought stress and growth suppression in several boreal tree species. The response of Alnus tenuifolia (thinleaf alder) to a warming climate could substantially impact interior Alaskan floodplains due the role alder plays as the dominant N-fixer. We studied the effects of inter-annual variation in monthly meteorological and hydrological variables on annual alder radial growth (directly related to N-fixation input), the landscape variability in alder climate sensitivity, and the long-term trends in climate and hydrology.