@article{1ae20c7c681c4cc2a9872ef08071fcec,
title = "Connectivity: insights from the U.S. Long Term Ecological Research Network",
abstract = "Ecosystems across the United States are changing in complex and surprising ways. Ongoing demand for critical ecosystem services requires an understanding of the populations and communities in these ecosystems in the future. This paper represents a synthesis effort of the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network addressing the core research area of “populations and communities.” The objective of this effort was to show the importance of long-term data collection and experiments for addressing the hardest questions in scientific ecology that have significant implications for environmental policy and management. Each LTER site developed at least one compelling case study about what their site could look like in 50–100 yr as human and environmental drivers influencing specific ecosystems change. As the case studies were prepared, five themes emerged, and the studies were grouped into papers in this LTER Futures Special Feature addressing state change, connectivity, resilience, time lags, and cascading effects. This paper addresses the “connectivity” theme and has examples from the Phoenix (urban), Niwot Ridge (alpine tundra), McMurdo Dry Valleys (polar desert), Plum Island (coastal), Santa Barbara Coastal (coastal), and Jornada (arid grassland and shrubland) sites. Connectivity has multiple dimensions, ranging from multi-scalar interactions in space to complex interactions over time that govern the transport of materials and the distribution and movement of organisms. The case studies presented here range widely, showing how land-use legacies interact with climate to alter the structure and function of arid ecosystems and flows of resources and organisms in Antarctic polar desert, alpine, urban, and coastal marine ecosystems. Long-term ecological research demonstrates that connectivity can, in some circumstances, sustain valuable ecosystem functions, such as the persistence of foundation species and their associated biodiversity or, it can be an agent of state change, as when it increases wind and water erosion. Increased connectivity due to warming can also lead to species range expansions or contractions and the introduction of undesirable species. Continued long-term studies are essential for addressing the complexities of connectivity. The diversity of ecosystems within the LTER network is a strong platform for these studies.",
keywords = "Antarctic polar desert, Special Feature: Forecasting Earth{\textquoteright}s Ecosystems with Long-Term Ecological Research, alpine tundra, arid grassland, arid shrubland, coastal, estuary, salt marsh, urban ecosystem",
author = "Iwaniec, {David M.} and Michael Gooseff and Suding, {Katharine N.} and {Samuel Johnson}, David and Reed, {Daniel C.} and Peters, {Debra P.C.} and Byron Adams and Barrett, {John E.} and Bestelmeyer, {Brandon T.} and Castorani, {Max C.N.} and Cook, {Elizabeth M.} and Davidson, {Melissa J.} and Groffman, {Peter M.} and Hanan, {Niall P.} and Huenneke, {Laura F.} and Johnson, {Pieter T.J.} and McKnight, {Diane M.} and Miller, {Robert J.} and Okin, {Gregory S.} and Preston, {Daniel L.} and Andrew Rassweiler and Chris Ray and Sala, {Osvaldo E.} and Schooley, {Robert L.} and Timothy Seastedt and Spasojevic, {Marko J.} and Vivoni, {Enrique R.}",
note = "Funding Information: This research was supported by the National Science Foundation Long‐Term Ecological Research program grants to the Central Arizona–Phoenix (DEB‐1637590, 1832016), Plum Island (DEB‐0213767, 0816963, 1354494, 1902712, NSF OCE‐0423565, 1058747, 1637630), McMurdo (OPP‐1637708), Santa Barbara (OCE‐1232779), Jornada (DEB‐1832194), and Niwot (DEB‐1637686) LTER sites. Funding Information: The capacity for environmental science to provide societally relevant information on ecosystem change is greatly facilitated by the existence of research and monitoring networks (Peters et al. 2008 ). The Long‐Term Ecological Research (LTER) network funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is a group of long‐term, site‐based research programs aimed at understanding ecological processes over the long term in a wide range of different ecosystem types. The LTER network began in 1980, with roots in earlier network efforts such as the International Biosphere Program (Callahan 1984 ). LTER sites were selected through a competitive process based on investigator‐driven ideas about how to study ecological phenomena over long time periods using experiments, long‐term monitoring, modeling, and comparative studies. Since the program began, data collection at each site is organized around five core research areas: primary production, population dynamics, movement of organic matter, movement of inorganic matter, and disturbance. LTER sites also carry out integrative, comparative research at multiple sites within the LTER network to examine commonalities and trends at scales broader than a single site. Funding Information: This research was supported by the National Science Foundation Long-Term Ecological Research program grants to the Central Arizona–Phoenix (DEB-1637590, 1832016), Plum Island (DEB-0213767, 0816963, 1354494, 1902712, NSF OCE-0423565, 1058747, 1637630), McMurdo (OPP-1637708), Santa Barbara (OCE-1232779), Jornada (DEB-1832194), and Niwot (DEB-1637686) LTER sites. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 The Authors. Ecosphere published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Ecological Society of America.",
year = "2021",
month = may,
doi = "10.1002/ecs2.3432",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "12",
journal = "Ecosphere",
issn = "2150-8925",
publisher = "Ecological Society of America",
number = "5",
}