%0 Journal Article %J Bioscience %D 2012 %T Past, present, and future roles of long-term experiments in the LTER Network %A Alan K. Knapp %A M.D. Smith %A Hobbie, S.E. %A Scott. L. Collins %A Fahey, T.J. %A Hansen, G.J.A. %A Landis, D.A. %A Kimberly J. La Pierre %A Melillo, J.M. %A Seastedt, T.R. %A Shaver, G.R. %A Webster, J.R. %K Climate change %K global change %K long-term research %K LTER Network %K multifactor experiments %X

The US National Science Foundation–funded Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network supports a large (around 240) and diverse portfolio of long-term ecological experiments. Collectively, these long-term experiments have (a) provided unique insights into ecological patterns and processes, although such insight often became apparent only after many years of study; (b) influenced management and policy decisions; and (c) evolved into research platforms supporting studies and involving investigators who were not part of the original design. Furthermore, this suite of long-term experiments addresses, at the site level, all of the US National Research Council's Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences. Despite these contributions, we argue that the scale and scope of global environmental change requires a more-coordinated multisite approach to long-term experiments. Ideally, such an approach would include a network of spatially extensive multifactor experiments, designed in collaboration with ecological modelers that would build on and extend the unique context provided by the LTER Network.

%B Bioscience %V 62 %P 377 -389 %G eng %U https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/62/4/377/243762 %M KNZ001496 %R 10.1525/bio.2012.62.4.9 %0 Journal Article %J BioScience %D 2003 %T Assessing the response of terrestrial ecosystems to potential changes in precipitation %A Weltzin, J.F. %A Loik, M.E. %A Schwinning, S. %A Williams, D.G. %A Fay, P.A. %A Haddad, B. %A Harte, J. %A Huxman, T.E. %A Alan K. Knapp %A Lin, G. %A Pockman, W.T. %A Shaw, M.R. %A Small, E. %A M.D. Smith %A Tissue, D.T. %A Zak, J.C. %K Community %K ecosystem %K global change %K Precipitation %K soil moisture %X Changes in Earth's surface temperatures caused by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are expected to affect global and regional precipitation regimes. Interactions between changing precipitation regimes and other aspects of global change are likely to affect natural and managed terrestrial ecosystems as well as human society. Although much recent research has focused on assessing the responses of terrestrial ecosystems to rising carbon dioxide or temperature, relatively little research has focused on understanding how ecosystems respond to changes in precipitation regimes. Here we review predicted changes in global and regional precipitation regimes, outline the consequences of precipitation change for natural ecosystems and human activities, and discuss approaches to improving understanding of ecosystem responses to changing precipitation. Further, we introduce the Precipitation and Ecosystem Change Research Network (PrecipNet), a new interdisciplinary research network assembled to encourage and foster communication and collaboration across research groups with common interests in the impacts of global change on precipitation regimes, ecosystem structure and function, and the human enterprise. %B BioScience %V 53 %P 941 -952 %G eng %M KNZ00881 %R doi: 10.1641/0006-3568(2003)053[0941:ATROTE]2.0.CO;2