An LTER Program for the Alaskan Arctic

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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.