NSF Org:	DEB Division Of Environmental Biology
Recipient:	UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INC.
Initial Amendment Date:	January 8, 1991
Latest Amendment Date:	March 29, 1996
Award Number:	9011661
Award Instrument:	Continuing Grant
Program Manager:	Scott L. Collins DEB  Division Of Environmental Biology BIO  Directorate for Biological Sciences
Start Date:	January 1, 1991
End Date:	April 30, 1997 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$4,373,619.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$4,373,619.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 1991 = $419,625.00 FY 1992 = $591,811.00 FY 1993 = $596,314.00 FY 1994 = $1,727,119.00 FY 1995 = $23,750.00 FY 1996 = $1,015,000.00
History of Investigator:	Judith Meyer (Principal Investigator) jlmeyer@uga.edu Wayne Swank (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc 310 E CAMPUS RD RM 409 ATHENS GA  US  30602-1589 (706)542-5939
Sponsor Congressional District:	10
Primary Place of Performance:	University of Georgia 623 BOYD GRADUATE RESEARCH CTR ATHENS GA  US  30602-0001
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	10
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	NMJHD63STRC5
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	INSTRUMENTAT & INSTRUMENT DEVP, LONG-TERM PROJCTS IN ENVIR BIO, LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH, LONG-TERM RSCH IN ENVIR BIO
Primary Program Source:	app-0193  app-0194  app-0195  app-0196
Program Reference Code(s):	0000, 1124, 1129, 9169, 9178, 9251, EGCH, ENVI, OTHR, SMET
Program Element Code(s):	110800, 112900, 119500, 119600
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.074

ABSTRACT

This project will continue long-term studies of response and recovery of Southern Appalachian forested ecosystems to disturbances. To understand and predict responses to current and emerging environmental problems requires an expansion of research perspective from a watershed to a landscape. The project will emphasize new studies along a complex environmental gradient with a continued emphasis on use of experimental manipulation to examine ecosystem response to disturbance. An elevational sequence that represents a gradient in external driving variables (e.g. temperature, precipitation) as well as a gradient in ecosystem response will be used in this study. Three interconnected ecosystems are arrayed along this response gradient: forested slopes, riparian zone and stream. The PIs will test the following ideas in these landscape components: (1) Forest structure and processes in the Southern Appalachians are currently changing as a result of both historic factors and recent drought-induced tree mortality. (2) Differences in structural and functional characteristics of stream ecosystems along elevational and longitudinal gradients are a consequence of changes in the relative abundance of geomorphic patch types along the stream. (3) Rhododendron maximum is a keystone species in the Southern Appalachian landscape, regulating the rates of soluble and particulate element export from the forest and reducing stream productivity. This is an outstanding research group that is recognized at the national and international level as leaders in the area of forest ecosystem research. Institutional support is excellent and the project management is dynamic and effect. Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory has been the site of interdisciplinary ecological research for over twenty years. This is an exceptional Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project.//

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