LTER-D

 One of the advantages to the new virtual world is the ability to join meetings across the globe. This morning, I had the opportunity to deliver a presentation at the annual conference of the German Long-Term Ecological Research network (LTER-D). 

The cover slide for my LTER-D talk

This year was actually a first for LTER-D, with an international marine-focused session presented in English. Presentations were delivered by Italian, Belgian, and German researchers (plus me, the American) about research in long-term stations around Europe. Habitats ranged from the Mediterranean to the Arctic and shallow lagoons to the deep sea. It was a great opportunity to "compare notes" on some of the long-term changes in ecosystems across the continent.

The chair of the session, my collaborator Thomas, had asked me to present results from our long-term recruitment experiment in the Arctic deep sea. The experiment was started in 1999 to study how hard-bottom communities take shape over time. We recovered the experiment in 2017 and found that even after 18 years on the seafloor, the experimental panels had low species richness. Communities in the Arctic deep sea take decades to develop. 

I was grateful for the opportunity to present the results of such novel research and hear about other long-term studies across Europe. It was a good day at LTER-D!