Answer: DIREnet stands for "Drought Impacts on Regional Ecosystems Network".

Regional drought in the last nine years is rapidly and dramatically altering Southwest ecosystems. The drought has become a catalyst, bringing researchers and land managers together to assess drought impacts. DIREnet enables researchers to address specific questions that can not be addressed without effective pan-regional coordination. This network fosters collaborations of researchers from academia and land management agencies.

Q2. What questions will DIREnet address?

Answer: The key hypotheses of DIREnet include:

1) Spatial and temporal climate variability correlate with tree mortality, fire and ecosystem productivity across the region.

2) Northern populations of Southwest tree species will experience less drought stress and hence less selection for drought tolerance.

3) Evolutionary paths will be redirected. There is evidence that extreme events such as droughts exert the major selection pressures and may explain diverse patterns of trait associations. 

4) Drought & tree mortality will greatly alter fire regimes across the region in complex ways. 

5) Consequences of the death and changing distributions of dominant trees will be community-wide. For example, with over 1000 species dependent upon pinyon pine, drought will affect diverse taxa from microbes to vertebrates and only a coordinated network can bring the findings of such diverse taxa and disciplines together. 

6) Ecosystems will be completely transformed (versus intact ecosystems moving upwards along gradients of temperature and precipitation). 

7) Invasive species will expand across the region as a result of wide-scale disturbance.

8) The recovery phase is prolonged and may account for major effects on inclusive fitness, thus,  it is imperative to follow the patterns of resource use, growth, development, and reproduction over long periods and diverse geographic locations, by coordinating research of many groups and institutions.

Q3. How do I acknowledge the National Science Foundation support (for DIREnet) in my publication, and what is the NSF Grant Number?

Answer: Acknowledgment and Disclaimer:

You and your institution are responsible for assuring that any publication including World Wide Web pages developed under or based on NSF support of your project includes an acknowledgment of that support in the following terms:

"This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0443526."

You and your institution are also responsible for assuring that, in any publication including World Wide Web pages which contains material based on or developed under your award, (other than a scientific article or paper appearing in a scientific, technical, or professional journal) this acknowledgment is accompanied by the following disclaimer:

"Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation."