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LTER Material Legacies

Kai L. Kopecky

Cross-system comparison exploring how the material legacies of foundation species influence demography of livinmg foundation species

The dead remains of habtitat-forming organisms, known as material legacies, can influecne ecoloigcal processes during periods of recovery after disturbance, and thereby shape ecosystem resilience. Using the NSF Long Term Ecological Research network, we aim to quantify the effects of material legacies of foundation species in marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

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Images of material legacies of foundation species in various ecosystems: a) dead standing trees in a forest after a drought or pest outbreak; b) dead oyster shells on an oyster reef after a hypoxic event or marine heatwave; c) dead marshgrass after a heat stress event; d) dead standing coral skeletons after heatwave-induced coral bleaching or predator outbreak.

Project Proposal

An emerging focus of ecology is to understand how material legacies – biogenic remnants of dead organisms – affect patterns of demographic processes in living species, which in turn shape patterns of community assembly and properties of resilience. A particularly unresolved aspect is how demography in living foundation species (organisms that create the biological structures of ecosystems, e.g., trees, corals, and oysters) is influenced by the material legacies of dead foundation species. Here, we aim to leverage the NSF Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) network to assess demographic responses of foundation species to both gradual and pulse inputs of material legacies across terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Specifically, we will utilize LTER time series to evaluate the magnitude and direction of material legacy effects and identify commonalities and dissimilarities among disparate ecosystem types. Insights from this research will help us achieve a generalized understanding of the impacts material legacies have on populations of foundation species and ensure we are best equipped to manage these legacies as they become more or less prevalent under changing global conditions.

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Table of material legacies, the enrvironmental conditions or ecological processes they are known to influence, and the posited or known effects they have on demographic procecsses of living foundation species.

Collaborators

  • Katharine Suding: Niwot Ridge LTER
  • Jill Johnstone: Bonanza Creek LTER
  • Ty Tuff: ESIIL Data Scientist
  • Chris Nytch: Luquillo LTER
  • Jesse Nippert: Konza Prairie LTER
  • Aubrey Barker-Plotkin: Harvard Forest LTER
  • David Bell: H.J. Andrews Forest LTER
  • Kyle Emery: Santa Barbara Coastal LTER
  • Steve Pennings: Georgia Coastal LTER

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Global distrubution of LTER sites to be included in synthesis.

Code Repository

Link to Github repo for code used to create analyses and visualizations for this project: https://github.com/kkopecky711/LTER-material-legacy-synthesis.git

  • Analysis Code: Scripts for data analysis, statistical modeling, etc.
  • Data Processing: Scripts for cleaning, merging, and managing datasets.
  • Visualization: Code for creating figures, charts, and interactive visualizations.