Coastal studies in Long Term Ecological Research

Dan ReedSanta Barbara Coastal LTER

NSF’s Long Term Ecological Research Program

24 sites representing a diverse array of biomes

Major focus of research is on common core areas:

• Primary production• Population dynamics/trophic

structure• Organic matter

accumulation/decomposition• Nutrient processing and

transport• Disturbance

NSF Long Term Ecological Research Program

6 of the 24 LTER sites have a coastal focus:Palmer Station (17)Plum Island Ecosystem (18)Virginia Coast Reserve (21)Florida Coastal Everglades (22)Georgia Coastal Ecosystem (23)Santa Barbara Coastal (24)

The principal biome at four of the six coastal LTER sites is an estuarine ecosystem on a protected coast or embayment

Plum Island Ecosystem Virginia Coast Reserve

Georgia Coastal Ecosystem Florida Coastal Everglades

Plum Island Ecosystem LTER Plum Island, Massachusetts

Primary research topics: Linkages between land and coastal waters involving organic inputs of carbon and nitrogen to estuarine ecosystems from watersheds with various land covers and uses.

Principal biome: Coastal estuary.

Plum Island Ecosystem LTER

Research focus centers around five central questions:

1. What are the magnitude and temporal pattern of organic carbon and nitrogen and inorganic N loading from watersheds to the estuary?

2. How are tidal marsh processes and their connections to estuarine waters regulated by sea level, storms and inputs from land and sea?

3. How do planktonic community structure and production respond to changes in organic matter, nutrients and water fluxes?

4. How do benthic use and recycling of nutrients and organic matter vary with changes in water fluxes and organic matter inputs?

5. How do the structure and function of higher trophic levels respond to variations in organic matter, nutrients and water fluxes?

Virginia Coast Reserve LTER near Oyster, Virginia

Primary research topics: Holocene barrier island geology; salt marsh ecology, geology, and hydrology; ecology/evolution of insular vertebrates; primary/secondary succession.

Principal biome: Barrier Island (beach, pine forest, salt marsh).

Virginia Coast Reserve LTER Central hypothesisEcosystem, landscape and land use patterns are controlled by the vertical positions of the land, the sea, and the freshwater table surfaces.

Ecosystem attributes• Storms, climate change, long-term sea-level rise, and land

subsidence cause variations in the elevations of these surfaces that driveecosystem dynamics.

• Ecological processes (organic matter production, species extinction andcolonization) alter the rates of erosion and sediment deposition and thereby alter land and water table surface elevations.

• Short-term episodic events and long-term systematic trends in sea level and landand groundwater surfaces give rise to variations in nutrient availability, primary productivity, organic matter accumulation and trophic interactions.

Research objectiveTo predict how the VCR ecosystem will respond to the anticipated changes in elevations of land, sea and freshwater table surfaces

Florida Coastal Everglades LTERMiami, Florida

Principal biome: Freshwater Everglades marsh, estuarine mangroves & seagrass

Primary research topics: Effects of changes in climate, freshwater inflow, and disturbance on population and ecosystem dynamics with an emphasis on the oligohaline zone

Florida Coastal Everglades LTER

Central hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: In nutrient-poor coastal systems, long-term changes in the quantity or quality of organic matter inputs will exert strong and direct controls on estuarine productivity, because inorganic nutrients are at such low levels.

Hypothesis 2: Interannual and long-term changes in freshwater flow controls the magnitude of nutrients and organic matter inputs to the estuarine zone, while ecological processes in the freshwater marsh and coastal ocean control the quality and characteristics of those inputs.

Hypothesis 3: Long-term changes in freshwater flow (primarily manifest through management and Everglades restoration) will interact with long-term changes in the climatic and disturbance (sea level rise, hurricanes, fires) regimes to modify ecological pattern and process across coastal landscapes.

Georgia Coastal Ecosystem LTER Sapelo Island, Georgia

Principal biome: Coastal barrier island/marsh complex

Primary research topics: Effects of variable river flow and ground-water discharge on population dynamics, community structure and ecosystem processes

Georgia Coastal Ecosystem LTER

General principle underlying researchThe structure and function of the Georgia coastal ecosystem is affected by the mean and variance of salinity experienced at a given location.

Research objectiveSeparate the effects of differences in mean salinity from the effects of differences in the variability in salinity for key ecosystem properties over a wide range of spatial (um to km) and temporal scales (minutes to years).

Research focus• hydrodynamics and hydrology• assessment of ground water inputs• fluxes in DIC, O2 and NO3• sediment biogeochemistry • plant and animal community composition, density and diversity.

The principal biome at two of the six coastal LTER sites is an marine ecosystem off an outer exposed coast

Santa Barbara CoastPalmer Station

Palmer Station LTER Western Antarctic Peninsula

Principal biome: Pelagic polar marine

Primary research topics: role of physical forcing (atmospheric, oceanic, and sea ice) on primary production, trophic structure and food web dynamics

Palmer Station LTER

Primary research emphases

• Ecological consequences of annual and inter-annual variation in physicalforcing (solar radiation, atmospheric, oceanic, sea ice)

• Life history parameters of secondary producers (krill) and apex predators(penguins)

• Pelagic community structure and carbon fluxes (including air-sea exchange)

• Physical/chemical/biological modeling the links ecosystem processes toenvironmental variables

Santa Barbara Coastal LTER Santa Barbara, California

Principal biome: Semi-arid coastal zone (kelp forests, watersheds, nearshore ocean)

Primary research topics: Relative importance of land and ocean processes in structuring giant kelp forest ecosystems for different conditions of land use, climate and oceanic influences.

Santa Barbara Coastal LTER

Central hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: The production and food web dynamics of giant kelp forests are driven by variability in terrestrial, ocean and atmospheric forcing that alter the supply and character of internally and externally derived resources.

Hypothesis 2: The structure and function of giant kelp forests is determined by the frequency and intensity of biological, chemical or physical disturbance events that reorder space utilization and trophic interactions.

Santa Barbara Coastal LTER

Primary research questions:1) What are the relative and absolute effects of external inputs from the land and the coastal ocean on the productivity and extent of giant kelp forests?

(2) What is the relative importance of land- versus ocean- derived carbon and nitrogen to kelp forest food webs, and how is it affected by changes in runoff and ocean climate?

(3) What are the important processes in terrestrial and ocean systems that drive changes in the nature and quantity of subsidies delivered to reefs, and what are the major factors that influence them?

(4) What are the spatial and temporal scales over which terrestrial runoff and ocean forcing perturb giant kelp forests?

(5) How do the short and long-term dynamics of kelp forest populations, food webs, and communities respond to changing ocean, land and atmospheric climates?

(6) What are the mechanisms determining the partitioning of nutrients between phytoplankton and benthic macroalgae?

Future of LTER Coastal Research

Addition of new coastal sites NSF’s division of Ocean Sciences has solicited proposals to establish 1 to 3 new LTER sites that focus on coastal ocean ecosystems**defined as systems from the shore out to the continental shelf, including the Great Lakes

PurposeTo increase the number of existing LTER sites that explicitly focus on the coastal ocean

EmphasisTo understand the predominant causes of ecological variability and/or long-term change, and how populations, communities, and ecosystems of the coastal ocean respond

TimeframeSubmission deadline: Jan 15, 2004Awards expected to be made in 2004