LTER: Integrating above-and belowground community data to understand ecosystem temporal dynamics and responses to global change

Interconnectedness between plant and microbial communities is likely a key indicator of ecosystem functioning and stability. These associations could be assessed through synchrony, the degree of similarity in temporal fluctuations between different ecosystem components, and coupling, which is the pairwise association of components in the ecosystem. However, few studies have monitored both above- and belowground components simultaneously and repeatedly over time, potentially leading to incomplete representations of community temporal dynamics. We propose to compile multi-year, co-located data on plant and microbial communities to test hypotheses related to the drivers of above- and belowground community synchrony and coupling in response to environmental change. Our working group will 1) gather and harmonize existing datasets with paired above- and belowground communities across ecosystems, creating a publicly available repository, 2) conduct initial analyses of synchrony and coupling using our compiled data, and 3) identify barriers to collecting spatiotemporally paired data in the field and generate recommendations for improved standardized methods. The products from this working group will expand the ability of researchers to understand how above- and belowground communities interact and respond to environmental change.