gc coastal long-term ecological research

Description

Environments at the land/sea interface change constantly because of natural variability of climate and sensitivity to storms and sea level changes. Change in these environments is accelerating due to impacts of anthropogenically altered freshwater flows, sediment loading and material inputs, and the harvesting of resources. Coastal areas are sites of intense human activity and rapid population growth. Many research questions in land/ocean-margin ecosystems require highly integrative analyses conducted over long time frames and broad spatial scales.

The general mission of the cLTER Network is to understand ecological phenomena which occur over long temporal and broad spatial scales; create a legacy of well-designed and documented ecological experiments; conduct major syntheses and theoretical efforts; and provide information necessary for the identification and solution of environmental problems. The conceptual frameworks of the existing cLTER sites are broadly focused around five core areas: pattern and control of primary production, spatial and temporal distribution of populations selected to represent trophic structure, pattern and control of organic matter, nutrient movement through the system, and patterns, frequency, and effects of disturbance to the research site.

These core areas are broadly defined and must be incorporated into the research to be conducted in land/ocean-margin ecosystems. In addition to the traditional cLTER core areas, research at land/ocean-margin cLTER sites will: increase the understanding of the organization and function of land/ocean-margin ecosystems; investigate the linkages between these systems and adjacent terrestrial and marine systems; and increase the understanding of major natural and anthropogenic environmental perturbations in these regions.

	NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

Coastal Long-Term Ecological Research (cLTER/LMER)

Description