scholarly journals Collaboration across Time and Space in the LTER Network

BioScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-364
Author(s):  
Tian-Yuan Huang ◽  
Martha R Downs ◽  
Jun Ma ◽  
Bin Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
Bibliographic Database ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The Monte Carlo Method ◽  
The Us ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Abstract The scale of ecological research is getting larger and larger. At such scales, collaboration is indispensable, but there is little consensus on what factors enable collaboration. In the present article, we investigated the temporal and spatial pattern of institutional collaboration within the US Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network on the basis of the bibliographic database. Social network analysis and the Monte Carlo method were applied to identify the characteristics of papers published by LTER researchers within a baseline of papers from 158 leading ecological journals. Long-term and long-distance collaboration were more frequent in the LTER Network, and we investigate and discuss the underlying mechanisms. We suggest that the maturing infrastructure and environment for collaboration within the LTER Network could encourage scientists to make large-scale hypotheses and to ask big questions in ecology.

scholarly journals Patterns and trends of organic matter processing and transport: Insights from the US Long-Term Ecological Research network

2021 ◽  
pp. 100025
Author(s):  
Tamara K. Harms ◽  
Peter M. Groffman ◽  
Lihini Aluwihare ◽  
Chris Craft ◽  
William R Wieder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
The Us ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
Organic Matter Processing

What Drives Declining Support for Long-Term Ecological Research?

BioScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-173
Author(s):  
John A Vucetich ◽  
Michael Paul Nelson ◽  
Jeremy T Bruskotter
Keyword(s):  
National Science Foundation ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
The Us ◽  
National Science ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
Important Time ◽  
Ecological Science ◽  
First Time

Abstract Several recent papers have reinvigorated a chronic concern about the need for ecological science to focus more on long-term research. For a few decades, significant voices among ecologists have been assembling elements of a case in favor of long-term ecological research. In this article and for the first time, we synthesize the elements of this case and present it in succinct form. We also argue that this case is unlikely to result in more long-term research. Finally, we present ideas that, if implemented, are more likely to result in appropriate levels of investment in long-term research in ecological science. The article comes at an important time, because the US National Science Foundation is currently undertaking a 40-year review of its Long-Term Ecological Research Network.

Growing Up with the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research Program

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan K. Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Graduate Program ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
Konza Prairie ◽  
Virginia Coast Reserve ◽  
Personal Consequences ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
Virginia Commonwealth University

As someone who began working at a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site prior to beginning his PhD studies, there is little doubt that the LTER program has been a major influence on all aspects of my scientific career. Working within the LTER program has provided me with great appreciation for the power of collaboration, large-scale and long-term experiments, and cross-disciplinary interactions. Scientists within the LTER network are among the most successful and influential in the world, and thus associating with them has many positive professional and personal consequences. Among the most valuable professional benefits are opportunities for exposure to ideas well beyond what a scientist experiences in a more typical research environment and the opportunity to collaborate and publish with scientists who are leaders in fields other than his or her own. My experience with the LTER program began in January 1982 with my employment at the Konza Prairie site (KNZ) in northeastern Kansas. I had recently completed an MS (in botany with a focus on subalpine plant ecophysiology) at the University of Wyoming, and I knew nothing about the new (at the time) LTER program. But at the urging of a fellow graduate student, Don Young (who eventually took a position at Virginia Commonwealth University and has long been involved with the Virginia Coast Reserve site), I applied for a research assistant position advertised in Science. This position description specifically highlighted that skills and experience were needed in abiotic measurements (i.e., installing a weather station and precipitation gauge networks and taking charge of monitoring climatic variables); these were tasks with which I had familiarity as part of my graduate program. As a lifelong resident of the western third of the United States and a fan of the mountains (often openly speaking negatively about grasslands!), I was not keen to even consider a position in eastern Kansas. But Don Young was an effective advocate and stressed the importance of keeping an open mind, something I try to stress with my students today. After presenting my research at the meeting of the Ecological Society of America in 1981, Don and I and a few other graduate students stopped in Manhattan, Kansas, as we drove cross-country from Bloomingt on, Indiana, to Laramie, Wyoming.

scholarly journals The US Long Term Ecological Research Program

BioScience ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN E. HOBBIE ◽  
STEPHEN R. CARPENTER ◽  
NANCY B. GRIMM ◽  
JAMES R. GOSZ ◽  
TIMOTHY R. SEASTEDT
Keyword(s):  
Research Program ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
The Us ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
Ecological Research Program

Evolution of Collaboration within the US Long Term Ecological Research Network

BioScience ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 60 (11) ◽  
pp. 931-940 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey C. Johnson ◽  
Robert R. Christian ◽  
James W. Brunt ◽  
Caleb R. Hickman ◽  
Robert B. Waide
Keyword(s):  
Research Network ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
The Us ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research

scholarly journals ecocomDP: A data design pattern and R package to facilitate FAIR biodiversity data for ecological synthesis

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Sokol
Keyword(s):  
Design Pattern ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
Ecological Community ◽  
Biodiversity Data ◽  
Intermediate Data ◽  
The Us ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
Community Data ◽  
Data Design

Two programs that provide high-quality long-term ecological data, the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI) and the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), have recently teamed up with data users interested in synthesizing biodiversity data, such as ecological synthesis working groups supported by the US Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network Office, to make their data more Findable, Interoperable, Accessible, and Reusable (FAIR). To this end: we have developed a flexible intermediate data design pattern for ecological community data (L1 formatted data in Fig. 1, see Fig. 2 for design details) called "ecocomDP" (O'Brien et al. 2021), and we provide tools to work with data packages in which this design pattern has been implemented. we have developed a flexible intermediate data design pattern for ecological community data (L1 formatted data in Fig. 1, see Fig. 2 for design details) called "ecocomDP" (O'Brien et al. 2021), and we provide tools to work with data packages in which this design pattern has been implemented. The ecocomDP format provides a data pattern commonly used for reporting community level data, such as repeated observations of species-level measures of biomass, abundance, percent cover, or density across multiple locations. The ecocomDP library for R includes tools to search for data packages, download or import data packages into an R (programming language) session in a standard format, and visualization tools for data exploration steps that are recommended for data users prior to any cross-study synthesis work. To date, EDI has created 70 ecocomDP data packages derived from their holdings, which include data from the US Long Term Ecological Research (US LTER) program, Long Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB) program, and other projects, which are now discoverable and accessible using the ecocomDP library. Similarly, NEON data products for 12 taxonomic groups are discoverable using the ecocomDP search tool. Input from data users provided guidance for the ecocomDP developers in mapping the NEON data products to the ecocomDP format to facilitate interoperability with the ecocomDP data packages available from the EDI repository. The standardized data design pattern allows common data visualizations across data packages, and has the potential to facilitate the development of new tools and workflows for biodiversity synthesis. The broader impacts of this collaboration are intended to lower the barriers for researchers in ecology and the environmental sciences to access and work with long-term biodiversity data and provide a hub around which data providers and data users can develop best practices that will build a diverse and inclusive community of practice.

Taking the Long View: Growing Up in the Long-Term Ecological Research Program

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Whendee L. Silver
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Graduate Program ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
Tropical Rain Forests ◽  
Luquillo Experimental Forest ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
The Tropics

The Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program has shaped me as a scientist by providing a collaborative environment and the opportunity to take a long-term, large-scale perspective in my research. I share this perspective with students by incorporating the principles, questions, and data from such research into my teaching. Working at an LTER site, and one that is based in Puerto Rico, has allowed me to increase the diversity of my laboratory and our graduate program by facilitating the recruitment of women and minority students. Personal experiences with science and data management in the LTER program, particularly the bad experiences, have helped me to improve as a communicator in the broadest sense. Although being a scientist in the LTER program has contributed to my career in many positive ways, it has also presented challenges to my work–life balance. To maintain its leadership role, the LTER program needs to remain an open network welcoming new scientists, new ideas, and thus new potential for discovery. I grew up, professionally speaking, in the LTER program. In 1989 as a new PhD student, I was strongly encouraged (i.e., told in no uncertain terms!) to explore research opportunities in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico. My mentors had developed a graduate field course in Puerto Rico that I participated in and later helped teach. Puerto Rico was their first venture into the tropics, one that was made easier by the fact that Puerto Rico is part of the United States and provides almost all of the conveniences of home. As one of my professors, Tom Siccama, liked to remark, Puerto Rico was “just like Connecticut, only different!” Puerto Rico was not, however, my first venture into the tropics. I had traveled, studied, and worked in Central and South America and the Pacific since my sophomore year of college and considered myself to be a tropical veteran. I felt at home in tropical rain forests, and had envisioned my PhD research taking place at some remote field site, in a foreign country, far from civilization: just me, my tent, the jungle, and the animals.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document