Past, Present, and Future Roles of Long-Term Experiments in the LTER Network

The US National Science Foundation—funded Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network supports a large (around 240) and diverse portfolio of long-term ecological experiments. Collectively, these long-term experiments have (a) provided unique insights into ecological patterns and processes, although...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioscience 2012-04, Vol.62 (4), p.377-389
Main Authors: Knapp, Alan K, Smith, Melinda D, Hobbie, Sarah E, Collins, Scott L, Fahey, Timothy J, Hansen, Gretchen J. A, Landis, Douglas A, Pierre, Kimberly J. La, Melillo, Jerry M, Seastedt, Timothy R, Shaver, Gaius R, Webster, Jackson R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
climate change
Design
Ecological modeling
Ecological models
Ecological research
Ecology
Ecosystems
Environmental changes
Environmental science
Expectation
Experiment design
Experiments
Feedback (Response)
Forest ecology
Forest ecosystems
Forest soils
Freshwater ecosystems
global change
Long term ecological research
long-term research
LTER Network
multifactor experiments
Networks
OVERVIEW ARTICLES
Research Design
Research Methodology
Soil ecology
Soils
Species
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Summary:The US National Science Foundation—funded Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network supports a large (around 240) and diverse portfolio of long-term ecological experiments. Collectively, these long-term experiments have (a) provided unique insights into ecological patterns and processes, although such insight often became apparent only after many years of study; (b) influenced management and policy decisions; and (c) evolved into research platforms supporting studies and involving investigators who were not part of the original design. Furthermore, this suite of long-term experiments addresses, at the site level, all of the US National Research Council's Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences. Despite these contributions, we argue that the scale and scope of global environmental change requires a more-coordinated multisite approach to long-term experiments. Ideally, such an approach would include a network of spatially extensive multifactor experiments, designed in collaboration with ecological modelers that would build on and extend the unique context provided by the LTER Network.
ISSN:0006-3568
1525-3244
DOI:10.1525/bio.2012.62.4.9