Discover EDS: Tales of Implementation and Use

This paper supplements the panel, which was delivered in a “Lively Lunch” format and included presentations by librarians who have employed EBSCO’s Discovery System (EDS) in their academic institutions. The panelists addressed several important aspects of launching a discovery system in an academic library, such as Implementation; Information Literacy; and Assessment, Usability and Customization. The implementation component included technical aspects, business requirements, enhancing the operability of link resolvers, launch preparation, and implementation success. The information literacy portion addressed how academic reference services and library instruction have been transformed because of EDS. Assessment, Usability and Customization focused on customizing the search box and assessing EDS using statistics and usability testing. Michael Gorrell, Executive Vice President of Technology and Chief Information Officer of EBSCO Publishing, was present, and a Q&A time was scheduled at the end of each session for audience members to ask questions, comment, and share experiences. The implementation process of a Discovery Service involves many different aspects and is a large undertaking for any library. Depending on the size of the library, its technology infrastructure, and the number of staff involved, the implementation time can vary greatly. In addition, the planning processes and the considerations made prior to implementation are also affected by the nature and needs of end-users in these institutions. Selecting the resources to include in the discovery service, resolving technical issues, developing a strategy to publicize and market to end-users, and assessing and customizing the product are all part of a continuous course of implementing Discovery Services—a process that begins long before implementation and has no fixed completion. This process involves a collaborative and consorted effort from all areas of librarian expertise, from technical services to public services. The simplicity and comprehensiveness of discovery tools redefine how libraries deliver services across the board, changing the expectations users have of the experience of searching library resources and challenging librarians to redesign instruction and teach information literacy in new ways. These considerations and our own experience with implementing EBSCO’s Discovery System (EDS) at the University of South Florida prompted us to open up a discussion across university and college libraries in the U.S. and across librarian functions, technical, and public services, in order to share, discuss, and learn from each other the lessons of Discovery Service implementation and use. We wanted to focus on the continuous nature of this process, involving the user perspective, as well as the perspective of the vendor, EBSCO. We believe that talking with our colleagues and collaborating with publishers makes us much better positioned to anticipate the changing needs of users and enhance the experience, accessibility, and discoverability of library content

Multiple constraints cause positive and negative feedbacks limiting grassland soil CO2efflux under CO2enrichment

Terrestrial ecosystems are increasingly enriched with resources such as atmospheric CO2that limit ecosystem processes. The consequences for ecosystem carbon cycling depend on the feedbacks from other limiting resources and plant community change, which remain poorly understood for soil CO2efflux, JCO2, a primary carbon flux from the biosphere to the atmosphere. We applied a unique CO2enrichment gradient (250 to 500 μL L-1) for eight years to grassland plant communities on soils from different landscape positions. We identified the trajectory of JCO2responses and feedbacks from other resources, plant diversity [effective species richness, exp(H)], and community change (plant species turnover). We found linear increases in JCO2on an alluvial sandy loam and a lowland clay soil, and an asymptotic increase on an upland silty clay soil. Structural equation modeling identified CO2as the dominant limitation on JCO2on the clay soil. In contrast with theory predicting limitation from a single limiting factor, the linear JCO2response on the sandy loam was reinforced by positive feedbacks from aboveground net primary productivity and exp(H), while the asymptotic JCO2response on the silty clay arose from a net negative feedback among exp(H), species turnover, and soil water potential. These findings support a multiple resource limitation view of the effects of global change drivers on grassland ecosystem carbon cycling and highlight a crucial role for positive or negative feedbacks between limiting resources and plant community structure. Incorporating these feedbacks will improve models of terrestrial carbon sequestration and ecosystem services

Multiple constraints cause positive and negative feedbacks limiting grassland soil CO2efflux under CO2enrichment

Terrestrial ecosystems are increasingly enriched with resources such as atmospheric CO2that limit ecosystem processes. The consequences for ecosystem carbon cycling depend on the feedbacks from other limiting resources and plant community change, which remain poorly understood for soil CO2efflux, JCO2, a primary carbon flux from the biosphere to the atmosphere. We applied a unique CO2enrichment gradient (250 to 500 μL L-1) for eight years to grassland plant communities on soils from different landscape positions. We identified the trajectory of JCO2responses and feedbacks from other resources, plant diversity [effective species richness, exp(H)], and community change (plant species turnover). We found linear increases in JCO2on an alluvial sandy loam and a lowland clay soil, and an asymptotic increase on an upland silty clay soil. Structural equation modeling identified CO2as the dominant limitation on JCO2on the clay soil. In contrast with theory predicting limitation from a single limiting factor, the linear JCO2response on the sandy loam was reinforced by positive feedbacks from aboveground net primary productivity and exp(H), while the asymptotic JCO2response on the silty clay arose from a net negative feedback among exp(H), species turnover, and soil water potential. These findings support a multiple resource limitation view of the effects of global change drivers on grassland ecosystem carbon cycling and highlight a crucial role for positive or negative feedbacks between limiting resources and plant community structure. Incorporating these feedbacks will improve models of terrestrial carbon sequestration and ecosystem services

CO2 enrichment and soil type additively regulate grassland productivity

The development of a predictive understanding of how atmospheric CO2 enrichment is affecting the primary productivity of the terrestrial biosphere is among the most pressing of ecological challenges. The terrestrial biosphere absorbs c. 25% of anthropogenic carbon (C) emissions (Le Quere et al., 2018). Uncertainty in CO2 effects on ecosystem C uptake is a major constraint in the prediction of C cycling and the provisioning of productivity- related ecosystem services. Grasslands cover c. 25% of the terrestrial area and are an important contributor to the global C balance (Sala et al., 1996). CO2 enrichment stimulates the aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) of most water-limited grasslands by increasing plant water use efficiency (WUE; productivity per unit of transpiration; Morgan et al., 2004; Nowak et al., 2004; Fatichi et al., 2016), but grassland ANPP, as other ecosystem functions, is determined by drivers in addition to water availability which act simultaneously and often interactively with CO2 (Polley et al., 2011). CO2 enrichment usually shows greater stimulation of plant productivity when nitrogen (N) availability is relatively high (Owensby et al., 1994; Reich & Hobbie, 2013; Mueller et al., 2016), for example. Other drivers include precipitation timing (Hovenden et al., 2014), disturbance regimes (Newton et al., 2014), plant species composition (Langley & Megonigal, 2010; Fay et al., 2012; Polley et al., 2012) and soil properties (Epstein et al., 1997, 1998), including soil texture, which influences water availability to plants (Tor-Ngern et al., 2017)

CO2 enrichment and soil type additively regulate grassland productivity

The development of a predictive understanding of how atmospheric CO2 enrichment is affecting the primary productivity of the terrestrial biosphere is among the most pressing of ecological challenges. The terrestrial biosphere absorbs c. 25% of anthropogenic carbon (C) emissions (Le Quere et al., 2018). Uncertainty in CO2 effects on ecosystem C uptake is a major constraint in the prediction of C cycling and the provisioning of productivity- related ecosystem services. Grasslands cover c. 25% of the terrestrial area and are an important contributor to the global C balance (Sala et al., 1996). CO2 enrichment stimulates the aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) of most water-limited grasslands by increasing plant water use efficiency (WUE; productivity per unit of transpiration; Morgan et al., 2004; Nowak et al., 2004; Fatichi et al., 2016), but grassland ANPP, as other ecosystem functions, is determined by drivers in addition to water availability which act simultaneously and often interactively with CO2 (Polley et al., 2011). CO2 enrichment usually shows greater stimulation of plant productivity when nitrogen (N) availability is relatively high (Owensby et al., 1994; Reich & Hobbie, 2013; Mueller et al., 2016), for example. Other drivers include precipitation timing (Hovenden et al., 2014), disturbance regimes (Newton et al., 2014), plant species composition (Langley & Megonigal, 2010; Fay et al., 2012; Polley et al., 2012) and soil properties (Epstein et al., 1997, 1998), including soil texture, which influences water availability to plants (Tor-Ngern et al., 2017)

Final Report of the Information Technology Subcommittee for the Campus Master Plan

Through its work, data collection, outreach, and careful review of various studies and information, the committee is led to conclude that as it moves forward with implementation of its Master Plan, UMass Boston has a tremendous opportunity to plan for and design spaces that support and promote the learning, teaching, and research requirements of the campus community. It is hoped that the recommended guidelines and standards outlined in this report will assist and inform the planning and design of new and renovated campus facilities and specifically address the technological needs of classrooms, laboratories, offices, informal study areas, and social spaces throughout the campus. As technology transforms rapidly and the needs of the campus evolve, the committee also recommends that this report is reviewed and updated on a yearly basis

Productivity of well-watered \u3ci\u3ePanicum virgatum\u3c/i\u3e does not increase with CO\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e enrichment

Aims Rising atmospheric CO2 has been shown to increase aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) in water-limited perennial grasslands, in part by reducing stomatal conductance and transpiration, thereby reducing depletion of soil moisture. However, the benefits of CO2 enrichment for ANPP will vary with soil type and may be reduced if water limitation is low. Little is known about CO2 effects on ANPP of Panicum virgatum, a perennial C4 tallgrass and potential bioenergy crop. We hypothesized that if water limitation is minimized, (i) CO2 enrichmentwould not increase P. virgatum ANPP because photosynthetic rates of this C4 grass would not increase and because decreased transpiration at elevated CO2 would provide little additional benefit in increased soil moisture and (ii) soil type will have little effect on P. virgatum CO2 responses because of high overall soil moisture. Methods Growth and leaf physiology of P. virgatum cv. \u27Alamo\u27 were studied as plants established for 4 years on silty clay and clay soils along a 250 to 500 J.l1 1-1 gradient in atmospheric C02 located in central Texas, USA. Plants were watered to replace evapotranspiration, fertilized with NO3NH4 and P2O5 and clipped to standard height during mid-season. Important Findings ANPP increased through the third year of growth. Soil moisture (0-20 cm), ANPP, tiller numbers and leaf area index were 8-18% higher on the clay than on the silty clay soil. ANPP did not increase with CO2 except in the planting year. However, biomass removed with clipping strongly increased with CO2 in years 2 and 3, suggesting that CO2 enrichment increased the early- to mid-season growth of establishing P. virgatum but not later regrowth or that of fully established plants. Furthermore, CO2 enrichment differentially affected two components of ANPP in years 2 and 3, increasing tiller mass and reducing tiller numbers. This reallocation of resources in clipped P. virgatum suggested increased meristem limitation of productivity with CO2 enrichment. CO2 enrichment had little effect on photosynthesis but increasingly reduced stomatal conductance and transpiration as the plants established. As a result, water use efficiency became increasingly coupled to CO2 as leaf area increased during establishment. These results suggest that for well-watered and clipped P. virgatum, ANPP differed between soil types, was not affected by CO2 enrichment when fully established but interacted with clipping to alter allocation patterns during establishment. Soil type effects on ANPP-C02 responses will likely become more apparent when water is more limiting

Soil type and moisture regime control microbial C and N mineralization in grassland soils more than atmospheric CO2-induced changes in litter quality

Global change-induced alterations in litter quality and soil moisture regime will likely impact grassland C and N dynamics, but how these changes interact with edaphic properties across the landscape is unclear. We measured the effects of litter quality, soil type, soil moisture level, and soil drying-rewetting frequency (D-RW) on microbial C and N mineralization of litter and soil organic matter (SOM) in a full-factorial, controlled incubation experiment. Four levels of litter quality (no litter; or litter from Bouteloua curtipendula grown under 280, 380, 500 μL L‒1 CO2) were surface-applied to three contrasting soils common to Blackland Prairie landscapes: an upland Mollisol, a lowland Vertisol, and a fluvial Alfisol. Different soil moisture regimes were tested by incubating soils at four moisture levels (air-dry, 25%, 35%, or 50% water-holding capacity, WHC) and by drying-rewetting soils 0, 1, 2, 4 or 8 times over the 112- d incubation period. Litter additions stimulated microbial activity, increasing total CO2 production (i.e. C mineralized from litter + SOM decomposition) up to 17x more than no-litter controls (average 3x) and decreasing net N mineralization up to ‒3x less (average ‒0.5x) due to greater microbial N immobilization. Neither C nor N mineralization, however, was affected by litter quality. For all soils, litter decomposition increased with increasing WHC and D-RW frequency, but the average percent of total CO2 derived from litter was a negative function of SOM content. Similarly, net N mineralization also was positively correlated with soil WHC and affected most strongly by soil type (Alfisol \u3c Mollisol \u3c Vertisol). Net N mineralization responses to D-RW events was also soil-specific, with Alfisol soils showing no response and Mollisol and Vertisol soils decreasing after 4 D-RW events. Our results suggest that predicted changes in rainfall patterns and its interactions with soil type across the landscape will control short-term C and N mineralization responses in grasslands to a greater extent than atmospheric CO2- induced changes in litter C:N ratio for this common species of prairie grass

Primary Productivity and Water Balance of Grassland Vegetation on Three Soils in a Continuous CO2 Gradient: Initial Results from the Lysimeter CO2 Gradient Experiment

Field studies of atmospheric CO2 effects on ecosystems usually include few levels of CO2 and a single soil type, making it difficult to ascertain the shape of responses to increasing CO2 or to generalize across soil types. The Lysimeter CO2 Gradient (LYCOG) chambers were constructed to maintain a linear gradient of atmospheric CO2 (~250 to 500 µ 1-1) on grassland vegetation established on intact soil monoliths from three soil series. The chambers maintained a linear daytime CO2 gradient from 263 µ 1-1 at the subambient end of the gradient to 502 µ 1-1 at the superambient end, as well as a linear nighttime CO2 gradient. Temperature variation within the chambers affected aboveground biomass and evapotranspiration, but the effects of temperature were small compared to the expected effects of CO2. Aboveground biomass on Austin soils was 40% less than on Bastrop and Houston soils. Biomass differences between soils resulted from variation in biomass of Sorghastrum nutans, Bouteloua curtipendula, Schizachyrium scoparium (C4 grasses), and Solidago canadensis (C3 forb), suggesting the CO2 sensitivity of these species may differ among soils. Evapotranspiration did not differ among the soils, but the CO2 sensitivity of leaf-level photosynthesis and water use efficiency in S. canadensis was greater on Houston and Bastrop than on Austin soils, whereas the CO2 sensitivity of soil CO2 efflux was greater on Bastrop soils than on Austin or Houston soils. The effects of soil type on CO2 sensitivitymay be smaller for some processes that are tightly coupled to microclimate. LYCOG is useful for discerning the effects of soil type on the CO2 sensitivity of ecosystem function in grasslands

Productivity of well-watered Panicum virgatum does not increase with CO2 enrichment

Aims: Rising atmospheric CO2 has been shown to increase aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) in water-limited perennial grasslands, in part by reducing stomatal conductance and transpiration, thereby reducing depletion of soil moisture. However, the benefits of CO2 enrichment for ANPP will vary with soil type and may be reduced if water limitation is low. Little is known about CO2 effects on ANPP of Panicum virgatum, a perennial C4 tallgrass and potential bioenergy crop. We hypothesized that if water limitation is minimized, (i) CO2 enrichment would not increase P. virgatum ANPP because photosynthetic rates of this C4 grass would not increase and because decreased transpiration at elevated CO2 would provide little additional benefit in increased soil moisture and (ii) soil type will have little effect on P. virgatum CO2 responses because of high overall soil moisture. Methods: Growth and leaf physiology of P. virgatum cv. ‘Alamo’ were studied as plants established for 4 years on silty clay and clay soils along a 250 to 500 μl l-1 gradient in atmospheric CO2 located in central Texas, USA. Plants were watered to replace evapotranspiration, fertilized with NO3NH4 and P2O5 and clipped to standard height during mid-season. Important Findings: ANPP increased through the third year of growth. Soil moisture (0–20 cm), ANPP, tiller numbers and leaf area index were 8–18% higher on the clay than on the silty clay soil. ANPP did not increase with CO2 except in the planting year. However, biomass removed with clipping strongly increased with CO2 in years 2 and 3, suggesting that CO2 enrichment increased the early- to mid-season growth of establishing P. virgatum but not later regrowth or that of fully established plants. Furthermore, CO2 enrichment differentially affected two components of ANPP in years 2 and 3, increasing tiller mass and reducing tiller numbers. This reallocation of resources in clipped P. virgatum suggested increased meristem limitation of productivity with CO2 enrichment. CO2 enrichment had little effect on photosynthesis but increasingly reduced stomatal conductance and transpiration as the plants established. As a result, water use efficiency became increasingly coupled to CO2 as leaf area increased during establishment. These results suggest that for well-watered and clipped P. virgatum, ANPP differed between soil types, was not affected by CO2 enrichment when fully established but interacted with clipping to alter allocation patterns during establishment. Soil type effects on ANPP-CO2 responses will likely become more apparent when water is more limiting