Woody debris is a recalcitrant carbon pool, storing carbon in complex molecules for extended periods of time. It has been shown that temperature and moisture are major drivers in decomposition from this pool. Additionally, under certain circumstances, both species and size can influence decomposition. It is not known, however, how the woody debris carbon pool in the moist, temperate forests of New England will respond to climate change, specifically soil warming.

Ecological complexity integrates complexity theory and ecosystem function and can provide insights to tackle critical environmental problems. Ecological complexity is not merely describing complicated systems, but complex in the many interacting components controlled by drivers operating across multiple scales. Multiple spatio-temporal scales are needed to understand complex systems. We are interested in understanding these different scales in the terms of biogeochemistry, or biogeochemical complexity. A unifying feature of many LTER sites is biogeochemical complexity.

Ecological complexity, a new but rapidly developing field integrating complexity theory and ecosystem function, can provide insights to tackle critical environmental problems. Here, ecological complexity is not merely describing complicated systems, but complex in the sense of studying many interacting components controlled by drivers operating across multiple scales.

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. 

Black carbon (BC) is produced from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. It has been detected in many important geochemical pools (soils, sediments, aerosols) and has been shown to be a significant portion of soil organic matter in some locations (45% in frequently burned soils). BC is ubiquitous in nature and its presence in long–term carbon reservoirs is well documented. Uncertainties exist in the BC global and regional budgets with respect to sources and sinks. The terrestrial soil sink is poorly constrained due to the lack of data.

Urban lakes provide a range of ecosystem services to their communities but there is little information about the long term biogeochemical behavior of these systems. We have been investigating basic water chemistry and dissolved organic carbon dynamics in Tempe Town Lake, Tempe AZ since Jan 2005. This man-made lake provides both recreational and flood-control services. High-resolution time-series measurements of water chemistry, nutrients, DOC content and DOC composition from Jan.

 Tropical reef ecosystems lie at the interface of productive, populated terrestrial coastlines and unproductive, oligotrophic oceanic waters. Corals and other dominant reef organisms maintain complex symbiotic interactions with both surficial and planktonic aquatic microbial communities, but the processes defining the composition and life history of these communities are poorly understood.

Leaf leaching is a potentially important source of nutrients and carbon in tropical streams. This study examined the leaching rate and variability among species and condition (fresh vs. senesced) of DOC, NH4, NO3, PO4, and other major anions and cations from leaves of common riparian tree species in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico. Uniform leaf disks were leached in deionized water for one, three, and seven days and the carbon and nutrient content of the resulting leachate was determined.

To continue an effort began at the last ASM, we propose a working group to develop a protocol for a ChemDB, as an analog of the HydroDB and ClimBD, for aquatic chemical data. The working group will be encouraged to come to consensus on the time step and averaging approaches to be used and suggest data formats. We will also discuss a template for metadata, recognizing that methodological differences exist, but that with sufficient documentation these methodological differences could be acknowledged as ‘facts of life’ and not as impediments to a useful data base.

The acceleration in the release of carbon from soils is one of the most important positive feedbacks related to anthropogenically induced climate change. Analyses studying the mechanisms for soil carbon release through decomposition have focused on the effect of changes in the average temperature, with little attention to changes to its variability.