FCE at the 2022 LTER All Scientists' Meeting

Enacting LTER Science through Federal Agency Partnerships
Evelyn Gaiser (FCE), Tom Fish (CESU National Coordinator), Paige Kleindl (FCE)

Purpose: Examine synergies between LTER programs and CESU hubs, as well as other federal agency partnerships and networks, provide examples of LTER-CESU (and other federal agency) partnerships that have enhanced actionable long-term science, and recommend pathways for future LTER-CESU network-to-network collaborations that contribute to career advancement of early-career scientists

Outcomes

• Planning a paper highlighting case studies of how federal partnerships have advanced actionable LTER science

Exploring abrupt changes across scales in ecology
John Kominoski (FCE), Lukas Lamb-Wotton (FCE), Kenny Anderson (FCE)

Purpose: Compare and contrast how we define abrupt change, explore variability in drivers and responses of abrupt change, and evaluate the spatial and temporal scales at which abrupt changes are observed across LTER sites.

Outcomes

• Received feedback on our abrupt change meta-analysis
• Next steps will be to finish a manuscript for publication

Track Workshop: Characterizing long-term pulse dynamics among ecosystems
John Kominoski (FCE), Jennifer Rudgers (SEV), Kristofer Hall (SEV)

Purpose: Introduce a synthetic approach to cross-site comparisons and troubleshoot models and generate metrics for three time-series approaches. Discuss product development opportunities that consider best-practice analytical approaches to long-term data, integration of long-term data from multiple networks within and outside the US LTER, and how to compare long-term data from different temporal and spatial scales.

Outcomes

• Trained colleagues in time-series analyses
• Developed ideas for a cross-site synthesis manuscript
• Preparing a full synthesis proposal to submit to the LTER LNO

Incorporating animal movement into ecosystem models
Bradley Strickland (FCE), Mack White (FCE), Ryan James (FCE)

Purpose: Raise awareness of the potential for consumer-mediated nutrient transport (CNT) to affect ecosystem nutrient budgets at LTER sites.

Outcomes

• Evaluating the potential for consumer-mediated nutrient transport (CNT) to affect ecosystem nutrient budgets at LTER sites
• Working on the submission of a full synthesis proposal to the LTER Network Office

Synthesizing LTER data to determine drivers of food webs
W. Ryan James (FCE), Justin S. Lesser (PIE, FCE), Shelby L. Ziegler (GCE, FCE), Bradley A. Strickland (FCE), Jordan A. Massie (FCE), Mack White (FCE), James A. Nelson (PIE, FCE), Jennifer S. Rehage (FCE), Ryan J. Rezek (FCE), Rolando O. Santos (FCE)

Purpose: Identify, compile, and synthesize food web data (e.g. stable isotope data, gut contents, barcoding) from across LTER sites and develop a manuscript that characterizes drivers of variation in energy flow and consumer nutrient cycling and identifies key research gaps.

Adapting the “Loop Diagram” for Integrated LTER Science
Kevin Grove (FCE), Dan Childers (CAP), Bonnie Keeler (MSP)

Purpose: Facilitate discussion on how to update key concepts in the loop diagram based on recent developments, and how to advance key conceptual frameworks that may guide LTER science into the future.

Legacy phosphorus: exploring controls on P retention
Gaston "Chip" Small (MSP), John Kominoski (FCE), Wilfred Wollheim (PIE

Purpose: Explore what factors control P retention and export across ecosystems, and how P turnover varies between sites that are P-limited compared to sites in which P is not a limiting nutrient.

Outcomes

• Developed ideas for a cross-site synthesis manuscript
• Preparing a SPARC synthesis proposal to submit to the LTER LNO