Long-term ecological research and the COVID-19 anthropause: A window to understanding social-ecological disturbance.

The period of disrupted human activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, coined the "anthropause," altered the nature of interactions between humans and ecosystems. It is uncertain how the anthropause has changed ecosystem states, functions, and feedback to human systems through shifts in ecosystem services. Here, we used an existing disturbance framework to propose new investigation pathways for coordinated studies of distributed, long-term social-ecological research to capture effects of the anthropause.

Immobilization of a N-labeled nitrate addition by decomposing forest litter.

Effects of chronic HNO and HSO additions on decomposition of senesced birch leaf, beech leaf, spruce needle, and wood chip litters were examined. Litters were incubated for up to 4 years in fiberglass mesh (1 mm) bags on experimental plots in a mixed-species forest near the Bear Brooks Watershed Manipulation (BBWM) site in eastern Maine, United States. Plot treatments included HNO additions at 28 and 56 kg N·ha·year, HSO additions at 128 kg S·ha·year, and a combined HNO and HSO treatment at 28 kg N and 64 kg S ·ha·year.

The fate of N-labelled nitrate additions to a northern hardwood forest in eastern Maine, USA.

We followed the movements of N-labelled nitrate additions into biomass and soil pools of experimental plots (15×15 m each) in a mid-successional beech-maple-birch-spruce forest in order to identify sinks for nitrate inputs to a forest ecosystem. Replicate plots (n=3) were spray-irrigated with either 28 or 56 kg N ha year using N-labelled nitric acid solutions (δN = 344‰ ) during four successive growing seasons (April-October). The N contents of foliage, bolewood, forests floor and mineral soil (0-5 cm) increased during the course of treatments.