Ecosystem
Science Cluster
The Ecosystem
Science Cluster supports research on natural, managed, and disturbed
ecosystems, including those in terrestrial, freshwater, and wetland
(including salt marsh) environments. Descriptive and manipulative
approaches in field, mesocosm, and laboratory settings are supported,
with the expectation that the bulk of the research is question-
or hypothesis-driven. Proposals are encouraged, but not necessarily
required to incorporate new or existing quantitative or conceptual
models for the purpose of integration or synthesis. The Ecosystem
Science Cluster funds research in the following areas.
Ecosystem
Studies: Supports investigations of whole-system ecological
processes and relationships in ecosystems across a diversity of
spatial and temporal (including paleo) scales. Proposals may focus
on areas such as: biogeochemistry; decomposition of organic matter;
belowground nutrient cycling and energy flow; primary productivity;
radiatively active gas flux; element budgets on watershed, regional,
continental, or global scales; relationships between diversity and
ecosystem function; ecosystem services; and landscape dynamics.
Proposals will be considered that focus on advancing ecosystem science
through either the pursuit of new theoretical paradigms or novel
modeling efforts. Proposals that, in whole or in part, strive to
develop new techniques can be supported when a compelling argument
exists that there is the potential for a major advance in ecosystem
research.
Inter- and
multi-disciplinary proposals that fall across traditional programmatic
boundaries are welcomed and encouraged. Proposals may focus on the
cycling of non-nutrient elements, but proposals that are ecotoxicological
in orientation will not be considered. Ecosystem-oriented proposals
that focus on coastal marine or deep ocean habitats are reviewed
by the Biological Oceanography Program in the Division of Ocean
Sciences.
Long-Term
Ecological Research (LTER): Supports fundamental ecological
research that requires long time periods and large spatial scales.
This cluster supports a coordinated network of more than two dozen
field sites. The general mission of LTER is to understand ecological
phenomena that occur over long temporal and broad spatial scales;
to create a legacy of well-designed and documented ecological experiments;
to conduct major syntheses and theoretical efforts; and to provide
information necessary for the identification and solution of environmental
problems. The LTER network of sites conducts integrated research
in 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 accumulation in
surface soils and sediments; patterns of inorganic inputs and movements
of nutrients through soils and waters; and patterns, frequency,
and effects of disturbance. LTER also supports a Network Office
[http://lternet.edu/sites/net/],
whose mission is to coordinate and facilitate information technology
development and implementation across the network, to facilitate
management of the network, to aid efforts in research synthesis,
and to conduct public outreach. LTER field sites represent a diversity
of habitats in continental North America, the Caribbean, and the
Antarctic, including deserts, estuaries, lakes, prairies, various
forests, alpine and Arctic tundra, urban areas and production agriculture.
This breadth is possible through coordinated funding from Biological
Sciences, Geosciences, Polar Programs, and Social, Behavioral and
Economic Sciences. Supplemental funding supports the LTER Schoolyard
educational program, international collaborative research, and related
activities at LTER sites.
LTER does not
solicit proposals, except when new LTER sites are initiated and
does not accept unsolicited proposals from LTER or non-LTER PIs.
For more information and announcements of opportunity, visit the
LTER web page [http://www.lternet.edu/].
In July 2001,
BIO commissioned an international committee of 17 scientists to
conduct a 20-year review of the LTER program - Read
the report.
Cluster
Contact Information
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