2022 LTER All Scientists' Meeting

Evidence suggests that there are long-term trends in primary production in relationship to climate and other forms of abiotic change. However, less is known about how these drivers impact the nutritional content (C:N) of these same primary producers. A recent synthesis of giant kelp tissue suggests that declines in C:N content are correlated with seawater temperature, and we propose that other LTER core datasets focused on primary production are well-poised to further investigate temporal changes in C:N content. These data may enable us to examine broader spatial and temporal scales as well as span aquatic and terrestrial biomes. In this workshop, we will aggregate and discuss patterns within and across LTER sites. Our longer term goal involves producing a cross-LTER synthesis on temporal dynamics of primary producer C:N content and examining significant trends in relationship to major climatic drivers (e.g., temperature).