Cross-ecosystem energy flows link streams and riparian forests. Forest harvesting alters the composition of riparian tree species, which can affect the structure and functioning of stream ecosystems through changes in terrestrial resource subsidies. We examined how variation in riparian forest composition (coniferous, mixed, deciduous) affects stream invertebrate and microbial consumers and subsequent leaf litter breakdown rates of red alder (Alnus rubra) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) in small coastal rainforest streams of southwestern British Columbia.

The McMurdo Dry Valleys have no rainfall and most snowfall sublimates before wetting the soils significantly. Glacial melt streams are also seasonal, flowing for only 4 to 6 weeks per year. Consequently, hydrology does not provide significant connections among ecosystem components. Conversely, wind is a persistent daily feature of the McMurdo Dry Valleys environment throughout the year. In summer, cool air from the ice-covered oceans flows into the relatively warm valleys creating a strong thermal gradient in the valleys.

Land use change is one of the most important factors contributing to CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere, but also to the loss of biodiversity and alteration of hydrologic cycle in different biomes. In Central-Northern Mexico, the shortgrass steppe is highly threatened by different types of land use change including, overgrazing, agricultural development, and shrub encroachment. Recent assessments along the shortgrass steppe reported between 15 to 110 MT C ha^-1 y^-1, which summing the large extent of semiarid grasslands (~ 100,000 Km²).

Altered precipitation patterns are predicted to accompany climate change and are likely to impact grassland soil communities and nutrient cycling processes, which are dependant to a large extent soil water content. While short-term responses of soil communities and nutrient cycling to changes in precipitation amounts and soil water availability have been documented, very few studies have examined the long-term effects of these changes. A long-term reciprocal transplant experiment, initiated in 1993, provides a unique opportunity to address the long term response of soil communities (e.g.

According to the latest IPCC report, global climate change models are predicting an increase in the variability and intensity of extreme weather events, such as drought, in semi-arid regions. Semi-arid grasslands, or shortgrass-steppe, are among the most responsive ecosystems to global climate change. Therefore it is critical to determine the underlying mechanisms of their responses to scenarios like drought and how these mechanisms vary across space and time.

The field training program, GCOE-INeT International summer school on “Frontier in Ecosystem Ecology of Northern Forest” was held June 14-20, 2009 in Hokkaido University’s experimental forests that are included within the JaLTER (Japan Long-Term Ecological Research Network). Nineteen Ph.D. students from eight countries (Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and UK) attended in this program.

This study looked at the impact of high nutrient loads from non-point source pollution on the stoichiometry of detrital food webs in suburban streams: basal food resources, primary consumers, predators, and nutrient imbalances between food and consumer.

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.

This session is intended both for social and biophysical scientists who want to help develop a proposal for the kind of “multi-site, highly collaborative and integrated research initiative” envisioned by the LTER planning group. The focus will be on what the LTER planning process calls the “centerpiece” of the group's conceptual framework, as well as one of “Grand Challenges” to be addressed at the network level – “the dynamics of coupled human-natural ecosystems.”

The 2007 Regional report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that the central grassland region of North America is very likely to warm substantially during the twenty first century. Modelers are less certain about changes in the timing and amount of precipitation in the region. Our research examines how changes in plant available water will affect critical biological processes in the central grassland region of North America, specifically comparing a site at the Shortgrass Steppe LTER to a site on the mixed grass prairie near Hays, KS.