SPACE, CYBER, AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS LAW: 2019-2020 Annual Report

In assembling this Annual Report we appreciated the opportunity to review major accomplishments and growth of the Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law (SCTL) program during the 2019-2020 academic year. Of course, this was a year like no other as we responded to an unfolding global pandemic. We are proud of what we accomplished prior to that and of our response in the face of that sudden change. For readers unfamiliar with the program, the SCTL program was established in 2007 largely in response to interest by the U.S. Air Force in establishing a U.S. based program in space law to which it could send Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers. At the time it was established, the law school recognized the narrowness of the field and decided to focus the program more broadly on space law as the thencurrent domain of interest to the Department of Defense (DoD), on cyberlaw as the likely next domain of interest both to DoD and the nation generally, and on telecommunications as a common foundation necessary to both. We continue to focus on service to the state of Nebraska, taking on issues such as the rural digital divide and agricultural access to broadband, and our global community. We engage with international organizations and colleagues on challenges our society faces in space and online. The program faculty (and students) are active researchers, and the program organizes various events, including an annual conference in Washington, D.C. (one of the largest regular events focusing on space law), an annual conference in conjunction with USSTRATCOM (on DoD operational issues relating to space, cyber, and related issues), and an annual conference in Lincoln focusing on telecommunications and cyber issues as they impact the region. We appreciate continued support from the state of Nebraska, the University of Nebraska, our board members, and many of our friends and colleagues across the world

Intensive grassland management disrupts below-ground multi-trophic resource transfer in response to drought

Modification of soil food webs by land management may alter the response of ecosystem processes to climate extremes, but empirical support is limited and the mechanisms involved remain unclear. Here we quantify how grassland management modifies the transfer of recent photosynthates and soil nitrogen through plants and soil food webs during a post-drought period in a controlled field experiment, using in situ 13C and 15N pulse-labelling in intensively and extensively managed fields. We show that intensive management decrease plant carbon (C) capture and its transfer through components of food webs and soil respiration compared to extensive management. We observe a legacy effect of drought on C transfer pathways mainly in intensively managed grasslands, by increasing plant C assimilation and 13C released as soil CO2 efflux but decreasing its transfer to roots, bacteria and Collembola. Our work provides insight into the interactive effects of grassland management and drought on C transfer pathways, and highlights that capture and rapid transfer of photosynthates through multi-trophic networks are key for maintaining grassland resistance to drought

Land management shapes drought responses of dominant soil microbial taxa across grasslands

Soil microbial communities are dominated by a relatively small number of taxa that may play outsized roles in ecosystem functioning, yet little is known about their capacities to resist and recover from climate extremes such as drought, or how environmental context mediates those responses. Here, we imposed an in situ experimental drought across 30 diverse UK grassland sites with contrasting management intensities and found that: (1) the majority of dominant bacterial (85%) and fungal (89%) taxa exhibit resistant or opportunistic drought strategies, possibly contributing to their ubiquity and dominance across sites; and (2) intensive grassland management decreases the proportion of drought-sensitive and non-resilient dominant bacteria-likely via alleviation of nutrient limitation and pH-related stress under fertilisation and liming-but has the opposite impact on dominant fungi. Our results suggest a potential mechanism by which intensive management promotes bacteria over fungi under drought with implications for soil functioning

Land management shapes drought responses of dominant soil microbial taxa across grasslands

Soil microbial communities are dominated by a relatively small number of taxa that may play outsized roles in ecosystem functioning, yet little is known about their capacities to resist and recover from climate extremes such as drought, or how environmental context mediates those responses. Here, we imposed an in situ experimental drought across 30 diverse UK grassland sites with contrasting management intensities and found that: (1) the majority of dominant bacterial (85%) and fungal (89%) taxa exhibit resistant or opportunistic drought strategies, possibly contributing to their ubiquity and dominance across sites; and (2) intensive grassland management decreases the proportion of drought-sensitive and non-resilient dominant bacteria—likely via alleviation of nutrient limitation and pH-related stress under fertilisation and liming—but has the opposite impact on dominant fungi. Our results suggest a potential mechanism by which intensive management promotes bacteria over fungi under drought with implications for soil functioning

SPACE, CYBER, AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS LAW: 2019-2020 Annual Report

In assembling this Annual Report we appreciated the opportunity to review major accomplishments and growth of the Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law (SCTL) program during the 2019-2020 academic year. Of course, this was a year like no other as we responded to an unfolding global pandemic. We are proud of what we accomplished prior to that and of our response in the face of that sudden change. For readers unfamiliar with the program, the SCTL program was established in 2007 largely in response to interest by the U.S. Air Force in establishing a U.S. based program in space law to which it could send Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers. At the time it was established, the law school recognized the narrowness of the field and decided to focus the program more broadly on space law as the thencurrent domain of interest to the Department of Defense (DoD), on cyberlaw as the likely next domain of interest both to DoD and the nation generally, and on telecommunications as a common foundation necessary to both. We continue to focus on service to the state of Nebraska, taking on issues such as the rural digital divide and agricultural access to broadband, and our global community. We engage with international organizations and colleagues on challenges our society faces in space and online. The program faculty (and students) are active researchers, and the program organizes various events, including an annual conference in Washington, D.C. (one of the largest regular events focusing on space law), an annual conference in conjunction with USSTRATCOM (on DoD operational issues relating to space, cyber, and related issues), and an annual conference in Lincoln focusing on telecommunications and cyber issues as they impact the region. We appreciate continued support from the state of Nebraska, the University of Nebraska, our board members, and many of our friends and colleagues across the world

Intensive management disrupts belowground multi-trophic resources transfers in response to drought

Modification of soil food webs by historical land management may alter the response of ecosystem processes to climate extremes, but empirical support for this is limited and the mechanisms involved remain unclear. Here, we quantified how historical grassland management modifies transfers of recent photosynthate and soil nitrogen through plants and soil food web in response to drought, using in situ 13C and 15N pulse-labelling in paired intensively and extensively managed fields. We show that intensive management decreased plant carbon capture, its transfer through key components of food webs and soil respiration compared to extensive management. Drought only affected carbon transfer pathways in intensively managed grasslands, by increasing plant C assimilation but decreasing its transfer to plant roots, bacteria and Collembola. However, drought lowered the reduction of added nitrate to nitrous oxide in extensively managed grassland only. Our findings indicate that intensive management disrupts fluxes of recent photosynthates belowground, which impaired resistance of this process in response to drought. By contrast, extensive grassland management provides a greater potential to buffer impacts to drought by promoting the transfer of recent photosynthate belowground. Our work highlights that capture and rapid transfer of photosynthate through multitrophic networks is a key process for maintaining grassland resilience to drought.grassland<br/

Intensive grassland management disrupts below-ground multi-trophic resource transfer in response to drought

Modification of soil food webs by land management may alter the response of ecosystem processes to climate extremes, but empirical support is limited and the mechanisms involved remain unclear. Here we quantify how grassland management modifies the transfer of recent photosynthates and soil nitrogen through plants and soil food webs during a post-drought period in a controlled field experiment, using in situ 13C and 15N pulse-labelling in intensively and extensively managed fields. We show that intensive management decrease plant carbon (C) capture and its transfer through components of food webs and soil respiration compared to extensive management. We observe a legacy effect of drought on C transfer pathways mainly in intensively managed grasslands, by increasing plant C assimilation and 13C released as soil CO2 efflux but decreasing its transfer to roots, bacteria and Collembola. Our work provides insight into the interactive effects of grassland management and drought on C transfer pathways, and highlights that capture and rapid transfer of photosynthates through multi-trophic networks are key for maintaining grassland resistance to drought