Long-Term Ecological Research in a Human-Dominated World

Abstract

The US Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network enters its fourth decade with a distinguished record of achievement in ecological science. The value of long-term observations and experiments has never been more important for testing ecological theory and for addressing today's most difficult environmental challenges. The network's potential for tackling emergent continent-scale questions such as cryosphere loss and landscape change is becoming increasingly apparent on the basis of a capacity to combine long-term observations and experimental results with new observatory-based measurements, to study socioecological systems, to advance the use of environmental cyberinfrastructure, to promote environmental science literacy, and to engage with decisionmakers in framing major directions for research. The long-term context of network science, from understanding the past to forecasting the future, provides a valuable perspective for helping to solve many of the crucial environmental problems facing society today.

Building African Ecosystem Research Network for sustaining local ecosystem goods and services

“…It could not be based solely on project funds, as LTER is known to be expensive (Tenhinds, 1984;Bennun et al, 2005;Saidi and Pauw, 2010;Joubert and Trollip, 2011). The US LTER and the CERN lasted more than three decades because they were supported by periodic renewed governmental funding (Fu et al, 2010;Robertson et al, 2012). The United Kingdom Environmental Change Network (ECN) was established in 1992.…”

“…Indeed, this time period corresponds to the establishment of BIOTA-AFRICA (Jürgens et al, 2012); the assessment of IBAs (BirdLife International, 2002;Bennun et al, 2005); and the SAEON launch (Joubert and Trollip, 2011). This shows the very little experience of Africa in LTER and justifies the weaknesses and persistent gaps which characterize Africa′s climate information system (Archer et al, 2007), as LTER always includes investigations on biotic and abiotic factors (Lane, 1997;Hobbie et al, 2003;Jürgens et al, 2012;Robertson et al, 2012;Vihervaara et al, 2013). Biodiversity conservation is the main concern of any LTER, and 75.7% of the sites were located in biodiversity hotspots or protected areas.…”

“…The US LTER Network was founded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) to support a large and diverse portfolio of long-term ecological experiments (Knapp et al, 2012). This network consists of 26 sites scattered in forest, grassland, desert, freshwater, coastal and other ecosystems that span a broad geographic range including both climate and human impacts (Robertson et al, 2012). By increasingly being engaged with diverse stakeholders (i.e., land managers, policymakers, and decision-makers) at all levels, it provides not only scientists with key places for long-term, biome-specific observations and experimentation, but also ensures that their inquiries are relevant to addressing societal concerns (Driscoll et al, 2012).…”

“…The sites are closely associated with educational institutions and serve undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates to conduct field research, as well as provide environmental training for community leaders. Although the US LTER Network was not designed to be a single integrated observatory in which each site employs standardized instrumentation and capacity, cross-sites observation and analysis has considerably evolved since 1992 (Robertson et al, 2012). To date, more than 17 000 peer-reviewed publications have been generated from the long-term studies documenting patterns of inorganic inputs and nutrient movement through soils, surface waters, and groundwater; patterns and control of primary productivity and organic matter accumulation; spatial and temporal distributions of populations representing trophic structures; and ecological responses to varying patterns and the frequency of site disturbance (Michener and Waide, 2009).…”

Consequence of altered nitrogen cycles in the coupled human and ecological system under changing climate: The need for long-term and site-based research

“…The long-term monitoring and analysis of N deposition, N cycles in various ecosystems, biodiversity, and N export to water are needed to provide the fundamental information necessary to address a spectrum of research questions concerning N dynamics in coupled human and ecological systems (Driscoll et al 2012;Robertson et al 2012). Modeling and analysis coupled with long-term monitoring and field experiments provide powerful research tools to help understand the dynamic features of the N cycle driven by multiple environmental factors, and to address new parameters to be monitored or examined (e.g., Aber et al 2002;Driscoll et al 2003).…”