Ecosystem Dynamics

Many challenging natural resource management issues require consideration of a web of interactions among ecosystem components. Essentially ecosystem problems, the spatial and temporal complexity of these issues demands an interdisciplinary approach integrating biotic and abiotic processes. The goals of the Ecosystem Dynamics Program are to inform federal resource management decisions and use long-term, place-focused research and monitoring on federal lands to advance ecosystem science.

Current studies fall into five general areas. Herbivore-Ecosystem Interactions examines the efficacy of multiple controls on selected herbivore populations and cascading effects through predator-herbivore-plant-soil linkages. Riparian Ecology is concerned with interactions among streamflow, fluvial geomorphology, and riparian vegetation. Integrated Fire Science work focuses on the effects of fire on plant and animal communities at multiple scales, and on the interactions between post-fire plant, runoff, and erosion processes. Reference Ecosystems comprises long-term, place-based studies of ecosystem biogeochemistry. Finally, Integrated Assessments is investigating how to synthesize multiple ecosystem stressors and responses over complex landscapes in ways that are useful for management and planning.