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.

This workshop will introduce Virtual Field Trips version 2. We will explore developing an open access library of on-line, interactive virtual field trips for sites within the LTER Network. Individual field trips include site descriptions with links to data sources and on-line explorer tools, panoramic movies with hotspots linking to visual and audio descriptions of points of interest (teaching points), photo galleries that further describe key site features, and more.

This working group is a continuation of the previous day's meeting, here to plan the future course of actions.

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.

Most aspects of the structure and function of Earth’s ecosystems can no longer be understood without accounting for the strong, and often dominant influence of humanity across space and time. Human land-use practices in particular are fundamental determinants of local, regional, and global ecological processes. The consequences of such practices are evident across diverse scales influencing the sustainability of landscapes and ultimately the quality of human life.

The goal of this working group is to continue discussions initiated at the 2009 Science Council meeting that were focused on designing a continental-scale research program to assess how the major socio-ecological systems of the U.S.

The EcoTrends project was initiated in 2004 as a multi-site, individual investigator project that subsequently expanded into a network-wide initiative that directly supports the Decadal Plan and ISSE.

Disturbance ecology is a central theme at all LTER sites, yet disturbance datasets are often not standardized such that synthetic analyses and comparisons across sites are challenging. The goal of this workgroup is to bring together scientists collecting and maintaining long-term datasets on disturbance in an effort to develop effective formats for standardized datasets that can be included in the EcoTrends project. A second goal will be to initiate these multi-site comparisons across different disturbance events in the form of a draft manuscript.

The goal of this workgroup is to continue discussions initiated at an EcoTrends working group meeting held in April 2009. The goal of the group is to develop synthetic products based on the long term ANPP and species richness datasets in the EcoTrends database as well as other sources of information. The ANPP and richness data and figures in EcoTrends consist of simple temporal trends over time. Theory predicts a hump-shaped relationship between species richness and ANPP over space, and a positive relationship between species richness and NPP within a site, up to some asymptotic value.

The notion that ecological systems can exist in two or more states has become a central idea at the interface of basic and applied ecology. Climate change, stochastic events, and natural resource-use pressures can lead ecological systems to cross thresholds and undergo transitions, regime shifts, phase shifts, or catastrophic shifts (i.e., threshold dynamics) that are problematic to predict, important to society, and are difficult or impossible to reverse.