From LTER to LTSER: Conceptualizing the Socioeconomic Dimension of Long-term Socioecological Research

Abstract

Concerns about global environmental change challenge long term ecological research (LTER) to go beyond traditional disciplinary scientific research to produce knowledge that can guide society toward more sustainable development. Reporting the outcomes of a 2 d interdisciplinary workshop, this article proposes novel concepts to substantially expand LTER by including the human dimension. We feel that such an integration warrants the insertion of a new letter in the acronym, changing it from LTER to LTSER, "Long-Term Socioecological Research," with a focus on coupled socioecological systems. We discuss scientific challenges such as the necessity to link biophysical processes to governance and communication, the need to consider patterns and processes across several spatial and temporal scales, and the difficulties of combining data from in-situ measurements with statistical data, cadastral surveys, and soft knowledge from the humanities. We stress the importance of including prefossil fuel system baseline data as well as maintaining the often delicate balance between monitoring and predictive or explanatory modeling. Moreover, it is challenging to organize a continuous process of cross-fertilization between rich descriptive and causal-analytic local case studies and theory/modeling-oriented generalizations. Conceptual insights are used to derive conclusions for the design of infrastructures needed for long-term socioecological research.

Developing predictive insight into changing water systems: use-inspired hydrologic science for the Anthropocene

“…The challenge relates to the determination of the most valuable kinds of information to collate, obtaining data sets that may be privately held or confidentially compiled by government agencies, and by virtue of its nature. For instance, archiving historical or legal information, or extracting quantitative metrics from such information to make it easy for hydrologists to use, this information is not a routine activity (Haberl et al, 2006;Redman et al, 2004). Booming opportunities in novel data collection techniques, including the use of human sensors, distributed sensors linked in to mobile phone or wireless networks; and the need to manage uncertainty in these data sets pose further challenges.…”

“…Numerous existing data sets collect hydrological data within reasonably wellcharacterized ecological, geological and climatic contexts. Extending these approaches to incorporate socio-economic data from censuses, surveys and economic records will be critical for consideration of change in managed watersheds (Haberl et al, 2006;Redman et al, 2004): fusing hydrological and socio-economic data sets productively will require interdisciplinary efforts.…”

Construyendo una Red Chilena para Estudios Socioecológicos a Largo Plazo: Avances, enfoques y relevancia

“…Esta perspectiva más amplia sobre los fenómenos ecológicos ha conducido a adoptar el nombre de "investigación socioecológica a largo plazo" (Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research -LTSER por su sigla en inglés), con un enfoque que incluye variables socioeconómicas (Haberl et al 2006). Recientemente, por ejemplo, US LTER propuso el modelo "Ciencia Integrada para la Sociedad y el Ambiente" (Integrated Science for Society and the Environment: ISSE) que combina dimensiones sociales y ecológicas de los ecosistemas a través de un enfoque basado en la comprensión de umbrales y ciclos de retroalimentación entre las percepciones y conductas humanas, la estructura y función de los ecosistemas, y el suministro de bienes y servicios ecosistémicos (Collins et al 2007).…”

Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research in Practice: Lessons from Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research in the Austrian Eisenwurzen

“…Long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER) is an inter-and transdisciplinary research agenda addressing socio-ecological change over time with the ultimate aim of providing meaningful knowledge for sustainable regional development, both to the scientific community and to stakeholders [1][2][3]. LTSER emerged out of long-term ecological research (LTER), which has a long tradition in ecosystem research.…”

“…This insight motivated an extension of the LTER agenda to a broader approach that also considers societal processes driving environmental change, as well as feedbacks of environmental changes on society, and actively included regional stakeholders in research processes. LTSER was introduced as a new approach aiming to meet this challenge [1,3,13]. LTSER combines ecological research with social sciences and humanities and draws on integrating concepts like resilience [14], socioecological metabolism [15], and transdisciplinarity [16], with a particular emphasis on long-term trajectories.…”