As the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network enters its fourth decade, ecological scientists are taking stock of the contributions and future directions of the nation’s largest and longest running ecological research network. In a series of six papers in the April issue of the journal BioScience, teams of scientists drawn from across LTER take a critical look at the program’s 30 years of service to science and society in an era of unprecedented environmental change.
CAP scientists Nancy Grimm, Kelli Larson, and Arnim Wiek are co-authors for two of the papers. Grimm and Larson contributed to “Ecosystem Processes and Human Influences Regulate Streamflow Response to Climate Change at Long-Term Ecological Research Sites,” and Wiek was the second author on “Scenario Studies as a Synthetic and Integrative Research Activity for Long-Term Ecological Research.”
BioScience’s retrospective look at LTER and its network of scientists, observations, and cutting-edge experiments comes at a time when public agencies and other entities charged with stewarding the nation’s environmental health are increasingly challenged to provide a sound scientific basis for their decision making. The BioScience special section demonstrates how LTER provides resource managers and policy makers the relevant information they need to address the nation’s environmental challenges and secure a more sustainable future.
For more information, please read the press release from the LTER Network Office http://bit.ly/HnE0VD . A full listing of the articles in this special section is below. Please contact the authors for copies of the papers. For copyright reasons, we cannot distribute these on our website.
Editorial
David R. Foster
Long-Term Ecological Research in a Human-Dominated World
G. Philip Robertson, Scott L. Collins, David R. Foster, Nicholas Brokaw, Hugh W. Ducklow, Ted L. Gragson, Corinna Gries, Stephen K. Hamilton, A. David McGuire, John C. Moore, Emily H. Stanley, Robert B. Waide, and Mark W. Williams
Scenario Studies as a Synthetic and Integrative Research Activity for Long-Term Ecological Research
Jonathan R. Thompson, Arnim Wiek, Frederick J. Swanson, Stephen R. Carpenter, Nancy Fresco, Teresa Hollingsworth, Thomas A. Spies, and David R. Foster
Past, Present, and Future Roles of Long-Term Experiments in the LTER Network
Alan K. Knapp, Melinda D. Smith, Sarah E. Hobbie, Scott L. Collins, Timothy J. Fahey, Gretchen J. A. Hansen, Douglas A. Landis, Kimberly J. La Pierre, Jerry M. Melillo, Timothy R. Seastedt, Gaius R. Shaver, and Jackson R. Webster
Ecosystem Processes and Human Influences Regulate Streamflow Response to Climate Change at Long-Term Ecological Research Sites
Julia A. Jones, Irena F. Creed, Kendra L. Hatcher, Robert J. Warren, Mary Beth Adams, Melinda H. Benson, Emery Boose, Warren A. Brown, John L. Campbell, Alan Covich, David W. Clow, Clifford N. Dahm, Kelly Elder, Chelcy R. Ford, Nancy B. Grimm, Donald L. Henshaw, Kelli L. Larson, Evan S. Miles, Kathleen M. Miles, Stephen D. Sebestyen, Adam T. Spargo, Asa B. Stone, James M. Vose, and Mark W. Williams
The Disappearing Cryosphere: Impacts and Ecosystem Responses to Rapid Cryosphere Loss
Andrew G. Fountain, John L. Campbell, Edward A. G. Schuur, Sharon E. Stammerjohn, Mark W. Williams, and Hugh W. Ducklow