LTER: Comparative Study of a Suite of Lakes in Wisconsin

湖泊是非凡的生态系统，提供从娱乐到食物到清洁和充足的饮用水的社会效益。但是，吸引我们进入湖泊的相同特征使湖泊容易受到人类活动的影响，这些活动会破坏这些环境，在某些情况下，会导致大规模、突然和不受欢迎的生态变化。北温带湖泊长期生态研究项目（NTL-LTER）的目标是了解湖泊如何以及为什么随着时间的推移而变化，并确定这些变化的后果。40年来，NTL-LTER研究了威斯康星州的两组湖泊及其周围的景观。一组湖泊位于威斯康星州北部的农村，森林和游客为主的北部高地湖区，另一组湖泊位于威斯康星州议会大厦麦迪逊附近的农业和城市景观中。研究这两组不同的湖泊，并能够记录几十年来发生的变化，为了解不同环境下不同类型的湖泊如何受到气候条件变化、城市扩张、入侵物种的到来、有害藻华或环境政策变化等现象的影响提供了重要信息。这些研究活动反过来又提高了目前对湖泊的认识和管理，使任何关心该地区未来、淡水资源和居民福利的人受益。结果也被整合到多个K-12，本科，研究生和继续教育活动中。NTL-LTER项目致力于支持科学多样性，并致力于将科学发现传播给感兴趣的个人、非政府组织、学术界以及地方、州、部落和联邦机构。新的研究活动将建立在NTL-LTER对北温带湖泊的长期观测和深入的生态学理解的坚实基础上，以解决一个首要问题：湖泊及其周围景观的突然生态变化的原因和后果是什么？研究活动围绕生态突变的中心框架组织，旨在揭示导致湖泊生态突变的机制，并涉及四个重点问题的研究：(1)湖泊物候对可能导致生态突变的更温暖和更多变的气候的响应是什么？(2)土地利用与长期气候变化的相互作用如何影响城市水生生态系统？(3)外部驱动因素如何与水生入侵物种相互作用调控水质？(4)是什么导致有意的生态系统操纵持续、恢复或导致新的状态？这些问题考虑了从生物体到生态系统的生态变化，并提供了强有力的机会来检验、修改和扩展关于在不同生态系统中广泛相关的突然生态变化的原因和后果的假设。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Lakes are extraordinary ecosystems that provide societal benefits from recreation to food to clean and plentiful drinking water. But the same characteristics that draw us in leave lakes vulnerable to human activities that can damage these environments, and in some cases, cause large, abrupt, and undesirable ecological changes. The goal of the North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research Program (NTL-LTER) is to understand how and why lakes change over time and determine the consequences of these changes. For 40 years, the NTL-LTER has studied two sets of Wisconsin lakes and their surrounding landscapes. One group of lakes is located in the rural, forested, and tourist-dominated Northern Highland Lake District in northern Wisconsin and the other is situated in the agricultural and urban landscape around Madison, Wisconsin’s state capitol. Studying these two distinct groups of lakes and being able to document changes occurring over several decades provides essential information about how different types of lakes in different settings are affected by phenomena such as shifting climate conditions, urban expansion, the arrival of invasive species, harmful algal blooms, or changes in environmental policies. These research activities, in turn, improve current understanding and management of lakes, benefitting anyone concerned with the future of the region, its freshwater resources, and the welfare of its residents. Results are also integrated into multiple K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education activities. The NTL-LTER program is committed to supporting diversity in science, and to outreach efforts that communicate scientific findings to interested individuals, non-governmental organizations, academics, and local, state, tribal and federal agencies. New research activities will build on NTL-LTER’s strong foundation of long-term observations and deep ecological understanding of north temperate lakes to address the overarching question: What are the causes and consequences of abrupt ecological change in lakes and their surrounding landscapes? Research activities are organized around a central framework of abrupt ecological change intended to reveal mechanisms that lead to abrupt ecological changes in lakes, and involve studies inspired by four focal questions: (1) What are lake phenological responses to a warmer and more variable climate that may lead to abrupt ecological change? (2) How do interactions of land use and long-term climate change affect urban aquatic ecosystems? (3) How do external drivers interact with aquatic invasive species to regulate water quality? And (4) What causes intentional ecosystem manipulations to persist, revert, or lead to novel states? These questions consider ecological changes from organisms to ecosystems and provide potent opportunities to test, modify, and expand hypotheses regarding the causes and consequences of abrupt ecological change that are broadly relevant across diverse ecosystems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.