SEVILLETA LTER: Pulse dynamics in aridland ecosystems at multiple spatial and temporal scales

Although water is the key limiting resource in aridland ecosystems, most arid land soils are also chronically low in nutrients and organic matter. Resource availability is a function of the frequency and size of precipitation events as well as the time between events. In addition, arid and semiarid ecosystems worldwide are undergoing state transitions (shrub encroachment, tree mortality) in response to multiple anthropogenic drivers (warming, drought, fire). These state transitions have important consequences for ecosystem processes. We have developed a multi-scaled integrated research program that integrates pulse dynamics with exchanges, interactions, transitions, and fluxes. This multi-scaled approach provides the general organizing framework for our research program, which includes long-term mechanistic experiments as well as spatially extensive monitoring networks. This poster presents our conceptual framework and approach to project integration, and highlights several of our signature long-term experiments. Together, our observational and experimental research activities will yield a comprehensive understanding of how pulse dynamics affect pattern and process in aridland ecosystems at multiple spatial scales.