NSF Awards $10 Million to Ocean Sites for Long-Term Ecological Research
Coral reefs and coastal upwelling ecosystems are the foci of two new LTER sites awarded funding this summer by the National Science Foundation (NSF). With the addition of the California Current Ecosystem (CCE) and the Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) LTER sites, there are now 26 NSF-funded sites in the LTER network. Henry Gholz, director of NSF's LTER program, noted that the two sites significantly augmented the LTER network, which hitherto included only one marine site -- Palmer in the Antarctic. The awards ensure that high biodiversity and productivity ecosystems in most of the world's major biomes, both on land and in the oceans, are represented. The two newest sites will receive approximately $820,000 for the next six years, for a total of about $5 million each.
The following two articles introduce the two newest members of the LTER Network.