Connectivity: insights from the U.S. Long Term Ecological Research Network

作者：David M. Iwaniec, M. N. Gooseff, Katharine N. Suding, David Samuel Johnson, Daniel C. Reed, Debra P. C. Peters, Byron J. Adams, J. Barrett, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Max C. N. Castorani, Elizabeth M. Cook, Melissa Davidson, Peter M. Groffman, Niall P. Hanan, Laura Huenneke, Pieter T. J. Johnson, Diane M. McKnight, Robert J. Miller, Gregory S. Okin, Daniel L. Preston, Andrew Rassweiler, Chris Ray, Osvaldo E. Sala, Robert L. Schooley, Timothy R. Seastedt, Marko J. Spasojevic, Enrique R. Vivoni · 发表于：Ecosphere · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1002/ecs2.3432 · 被引用次数：15 · 研究领域：Polar Research and Ecology、Geology and Paleoclimatology Research、Species Distribution and Climate Change

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 th...