An LTER Program for the Alaskan Arctic

这个北极冻土带生态系统长期生态研究项目有五个相关部分：(1)基线数据收集；(2)从“下至上”（即养分、光和温度）对整个生态系统进行实验操作；(3)从“上至上”（食草动物和捕食者）进行操作；(4)通过元素交换实现土地、水和大气的联系；(5)区域外推。所有五个部分的研究将涉及陆地生态系统、湖泊和河流。该研究的主要优势包括将实验技术应用于整个陆地和水生生态系统的能力，以及使用稳定同位素的新方法的应用。北极生态系统的相对简单性使其成为整个生态系统研究的特别好的模型，而其在极端气候地区的位置使其在长期生态研究项目家族中尤为重要。该研究项目由来自不同学术和研究机构的真正的跨学科研究团队组成。该团队由一位在国际上享有盛誉的资深科学家领导，他的个人表现非常出色。在过去积累的科学生产力的基础上，人们可以期望这一强大的专业知识在未来取得杰出的成就。除了主要科学家及其机构之间的协调和合作外，该项目还需要与几个联邦、州和地方机构密切联系。组织负担的这些方面也得到了很好的管理，以使项目受益。母机构海洋生物实验室的设施非常好，合作科学家的辅助支持实验室也是如此。阿拉斯加大学提供的现场设施足以完成这项任务。生态系统研究项目建议在这个为期五年的新奖项的第一年提供资金。

This Long-Term Ecological Research Project on Arctic tundra ecosystems has five related sections: (1) baseline data collection, (2) experimental manipulations of whole ecosystems from the "bottom up" (i.e., nutrients, light, and temperature), (3) manipulations from the "top down" (grazers and predators), (4) linkages of land, water, and the atmosphere through exchanges of elements, and (5) regional extrapolations. Research in all five sections will involve terrestrial ecosystems, lakes, and rivers. The major strengths of the research include the ability to apply experimental techniques to whole ecosystems, both terrestrial and aquatic, and the application of new methods using stable isotopes. The relative simplicity of arctic ecosystems makes them particularly good models for whole ecosystem research, and their location in a region of climatic extremes makes them particularly important to include in the family of Long Term Ecological Research projects. This research project comprises a true interdisciplinary research team from several different academic and research institutions. The team is headed and led by a very senior scientist of international reputation whose personal performance record is remarkable. Based upon the accumulated scientific productivity of the past one may expect outstanding performance in the future by this formidable array of expertise. In addition to coordination and collaboration among the principal scientists and their institutions this project also requires close contact with several federal, state and local agencies. These aspects of the organizational burden are also well managed to the benefit of the project. Facilities at the parent institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory, are excellent as are the adjunct support laboratories of collaborating scientists. Field facilities provided through the University of Alaska are more than adequate to the task. The Ecosystem Studies Program recommends funding for the first year of this new, five-year continuing award.