Long-term Studies of Ecosystem Response to Disturbance Along Environmental Gradients at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory

该项目将继续对反应进行长期研究， 阿巴拉契亚南部森林生态系统的恢复， 干扰.了解和预测对当前和未来的反应， 新出现的环境问题需要扩大研究 从一个分水岭到一个景观。该项目将 强调新的研究沿着一个复杂的环境梯度， 继续强调使用实验操作来检查 生态系统对干扰的反应一个立面序列， 表示外部驱动变量的梯度（例如， 温度、降水）以及生态系统梯度 本研究中将使用响应。 三个互连 生态系统沿着这个响应梯度排列：森林覆盖 斜坡、河岸带和溪流。 PI将测试以下内容 在这些景观组成部分的想法：（1）森林结构和 南阿巴拉契亚山脉的进程目前正在改变， 这是历史因素和最近干旱导致的树木 mortality. (2)结构和功能上的差异 河流生态系统的沿着高程和 纵向梯度是相对梯度变化的结果。 丰富的地貌斑块类型沿着。（三） 大杜鹃是南方杜鹃的重点树种， 阿巴拉契亚景观，调节可溶性和 从森林和河流中输出的颗粒元素 生产力 这是一个杰出的研究小组，是公认的在 在国家和国际一级作为森林领域的领导者 生态系统研究 机构支持非常好， 项目管理是动态的、有效的。考埃塔水文 实验室一直是跨学科生态学的场所 研究了二十多年。这是一个特殊的长期 生态研究（LTER）项目。

This project will continue long-term studies of response and recovery of Southern Appalachian forested ecosystems to disturbances. To understand and predict responses to current and emerging environmental problems requires an expansion of research perspective from a watershed to a landscape. The project will emphasize new studies along a complex environmental gradient with a continued emphasis on use of experimental manipulation to examine ecosystem response to disturbance. An elevational sequence that represents a gradient in external driving variables (e.g. temperature, precipitation) as well as a gradient in ecosystem response will be used in this study. Three interconnected ecosystems are arrayed along this response gradient: forested slopes, riparian zone and stream. The PIs will test the following ideas in these landscape components: (1) Forest structure and processes in the Southern Appalachians are currently changing as a result of both historic factors and recent drought-induced tree mortality. (2) Differences in structural and functional characteristics of stream ecosystems along elevational and longitudinal gradients are a consequence of changes in the relative abundance of geomorphic patch types along the stream. (3) Rhododendron maximum is a keystone species in the Southern Appalachian landscape, regulating the rates of soluble and particulate element export from the forest and reducing stream productivity. This is an outstanding research group that is recognized at the national and international level as leaders in the area of forest ecosystem research. Institutional support is excellent and the project management is dynamic and effect. Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory has been the site of interdisciplinary ecological research for over twenty years. This is an exceptional Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project.//