An Anthropologist Joins the Long-Term Ecological Research Network

Long-Term Ecological Research ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199380213.003.0027 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Ted L. Gragson

Keyword(s):

Design Education ◽

Environmental Science ◽

Ecological Research ◽

University Of Georgia ◽

University Of Montana ◽

Long Term Ecological Research ◽

Common Purpose ◽

Dramatic Shift ◽

The University

Environmental science has no room for theoretical or methodological hegemony, and questions cannot be asked in the absence of purposeful design. Education must simultaneously engage students in thinking and doing, ideally in collaboration. Communication is a two-way process in which scientists are challenged to be credible and legitimate in conveying salient results to diverse audiences. Collaboration is about leveraging individual skills toward a common purpose, which can only succeed when trust exists between investigators. I was trained as an ecological anthropologist with an emphasis on behavioral and ecosystem ecology at the University of Montana and the Pennsylvania State University. I have conducted archaeological, behavioral, cultural, and historical research throughout the western and the southeastern United States, as well as in several countries in lowland South America, the Dominican Republic, and southern France. Currently, I am professor and head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia. In 1997, I was invited to join the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program at the Coweeta site (CWT). CWT is based in the eastern deciduous forest of the southern Appalachian Mountains, and I was brought in to collaborate on regionalization of what had been exclusively a site-based project. Just prior to joining CWT, I had been involved for several years in regional conservation activities in Paraguay and Bolivia. Since 2002, I have served as principal investigator of CWT, leading the successful grant renewal efforts in 2002 and 2008. I recently completed the 2014 renewal effort, which was successful. There has been a dramatic shift over the period of my involvement in the LTER program in attitudes within the network to regionalization and participation by scientists from disciplines other than ecology (Gragson and Grove 2006; Robertson et al. 2012). Several colleagues and I have helped to foster this shift through our involvement on the LTER Social Science Standing Committee (1998–present), leadership in the LTER planning activities (2004–2007), and service on the LTER Executive Board (2008–2011). My experiences in the LTER program have influenced my ideas about the nature and conduct of environmental research.

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The Benefits of Long-Term Environmental Research, Friendships, and Boiled Peanuts

Long-Term Ecological Research ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199380213.003.0029 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Evelyn E. Gaiser

Keyword(s):

Graduate Student ◽

Environmental Research ◽

Policy Makers ◽

University Of Georgia ◽

Integrative Research ◽

Long Term Ecological Research ◽

Savannah River Ecology Laboratory ◽

K 12 ◽

The University

The Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program has enabled me to conduct more broadly relevant science by addressing questions within an interdisciplinary framework and to unravel the causes for surprising ecological phenomena through persistent studies and collaborations. Educational opportunities within the LTER program have connected me to students from grades K–12 to graduate levels in new ways from the field to the classroom, across places from Florida to Alaska, and among disciplines in a collaborative setting. The audience for my research expanded as a consequence of my experiences in the LTER program, and I have learned how to more effectively communicate integrative research to large audiences of scientists, policy-makers, and the public, often through nontraditional media. The LTER program is foremost a network of people, and I have found that science evolves most successfully when ideas and information are shared voluntarily across backgrounds, disciplines, and cultures in a network of cultivated, trusting relationships. The Florida Coastal Everglades (FCE) is the LTER site where I am currently the principal investigator, but the LTER program has been a part of my life for most of my career. My experiences in the LTER program began in the early 1990s when I was a graduate student at the University of Georgia, where the Coweeta (CWT) LTER site is based. Although I was not formally a part of CWT, many of my friends and professors were, so the program influenced my development as a scientist. I remember my first field trip to CWT, led by Gene Helfman and Judy Meyer, and the fun of snorkeling in mountain streams where we camped and conducted a few experiments, including examining the effects of rapid consumption of s’mores and boiled peanuts on preschool children (Judy and Gene’s kids). LTER-related activities wove in and out of my graduate student experience, and the rewards of sharing of ideas, data, friendships, and boiled peanuts created in me a lifelong commitment to persistent, collaborative science. This sense of fulfillment, of being part of something larger, was reinforced at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL), where I conducted my research.

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A Forest to Prairie Transition as a Long-Term Ecological Research Scientist

Long-Term Ecological Research ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199380213.003.0035 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

John Blair

Keyword(s):

Graduate Student ◽

Forest Floor ◽

Principal Investigator ◽

Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽

Ecological Research ◽

Ecological Processes ◽

University Of Georgia ◽

Long Term Ecological Research ◽

Kansas State University

Being involved in the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program for most of my career has greatly influenced my development as an ecologist. It has broadened my understanding and appreciation of ecological processes at scales ranging from microbial processes to ecosystem fluxes. Participating in the LTER program has heightened my awareness of the critical role of spatial and temporal variability in ecological dynamics, as well as the value of long-term data for identifying directional environmental changes or assessing responses to experimental manipulations. Working with other investigators at an LTER site over long periods of time has revealed the importance of a place-based understanding of ecological processes as a source of insight into complex ecological phenomena. Interacting and collaborating with students and scientists having diverse research interests and backgrounds has enhanced my ability to communicate more effectively with other scientists and with the public. There are some trade-offs between directing a large research program and advancing one’s personal research, but the rewards of long-term collaboration are substantial. I have been part of the LTER program for most of my career, from graduate student at one LTER site to principal investigator at another. I began my PhD training at the University of Georgia in 1983 under the direction of D.A. (Dac) Crossley, Jr., the first leader of the Coweeta (CWT) LTER program. My early research focused on forest ecology, including plant litter decomposition and effects of clear-cutting and regrowth on decomposer communities and forest floor processes (Blair and Crossley 1988). My first postdoctoral appointment was on a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant that I wrote to study forest-floor nitrogen dynamics using stable isotope tracers. In 1992, I joined the faculty of the Division of Biology at Kansas State University as an ecosystem ecologist. This position had been held by Tim Seastedt, another Crossley graduate student who served as principal investigator of the Konza Prairie LTER (KNZ) program and later as principal investigator of the Niwot Ridge LTER program. I was hired with the expectation that I would become engaged in the KNZ program, where my research would focus on ecosystem processes in tallgrass prairie.

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Sustaining Long-Term Research: Collaboration, Multidisciplinarity and Synthesis in the Long-Term Ecological Research Program

Long-Term Ecological Research ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199380213.003.0007 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Robert B. Waide

Keyword(s):

Puerto Rico ◽

Research Program ◽

Department Of Energy ◽

Ecological Research ◽

University Of Puerto Rico ◽

Energy And Environment ◽

Societal Needs ◽

Long Term Ecological Research ◽

The University

The Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program was created by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to encourage comparative study of ecological phenomena that occur over decades and centuries. The vision, mission, and goals of the LTER network have evolved to address current societal needs: to understand the dynamics of key ecosystems, to interpret effects on ecosystem services of importance to humans, and to forecast the effects of future ecosystem scenarios. Challenges inherent in sustaining a long-term research program include building effective plans for research, governance, and transitions among generations of scientists. The LTER program has been extremely successful at meeting its original goals, but increased expectations for cross-site and network-level synthesis are not yet fully realized. The initial absence of a shared conceptual model inhibited progress toward large-scale synthesis. Recent agreement on a conceptual framework that includes multiple disciplines has begun to address this issue. On February 12, 1980, I began my first real job with the Center for Energy and Environment Research (CEER) at the University of Puerto Rico. I was hired to work on an ongoing program funded by the Department of Energy that had begun 17 years earlier under the direction of Howard Odum. Along with my colleagues, Laurence Tilly and Douglas Reagan of CEER, and Ariel Lugo of the US Forest Service, I was also to participate in a proposal that had just been submitted for a new NSF initiative called the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program. None of us knew very much about this program, and the request for proposals described it in five short paragraphs. Not only was it a new program, it was very different from other NSF programs. Proposals needed to involve groups of investigators working on core research topics, and the proposed work should be coordinated in some way with a network of other sites. Principal investigators were warned to be prepared to make long-term time commitments. Little did we know. Our first proposal was unsuccessful, as was the second. By 1986, I had become head of the Terrestrial Ecology Division at CEER. In that capacity, I represented the University of Puerto Rico as co–principal investigator, along with Ariel Lugo, on our third attempt at becoming an LTER site.

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Long-Term Ecological Research and Lessons from Networked Lives

Long-Term Ecological Research ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199380213.003.0060 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

John C. Moore

Keyword(s):

Life Histories ◽

Graduate Program ◽

Michigan State University ◽

Ecological Research ◽

State University ◽

Santa Barbara ◽

The Public ◽

Long Term Ecological Research ◽

The University

The Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program has affected how I conduct and evaluate ecological research. Working with the LTER program has given me a greater appreciation for the complexity of the natural world and has provided a framework to study it. The LTER program has provided the best possible venue to connect ecological research with classroom instruction, mentoring, and professional development. Translating our science to the public is a challenge. My experiences in the LTER program have provided multiple opportunities to work with the public, K–12 and college or university students, and professionals in different fields. This process has honed my communication skills. The ideas that emerge from true collaborative science cannot be understated. The work at an LTER site and within the LTER network works best when we collaborate. I received my undergraduate training in ecology at the University of California (UC) Santa Barbara. At UC Santa Barbara in the 1970s, the ecology program focused largely on populations and communities. Field observations, laboratory studies, manipulative field studies, and equation-based modeling were the norm. I recall the first set of litter and soil samples of arthropods that I sorted were extracted using Tullgren funnels and thought at the time that a person would have to be insane to pursue this type of work as a career. Two years later, I was in the graduate program at Michigan State University working with Dr. Richard Snider where I studied the impacts of herbicides on soil arthropods in no- till corn. At Michigan State, I learned the importance of species life histories, behaviors, and tolerances to environmental variation. My first exposure with the LTER program started in 1979, during my first year of graduate school at Michigan State University. A National Science Foundation (NSF) program officer was visiting the university to promote the concept of the LTER program and the first round of competition. Being 22 years old at the time, it was difficult for me to appreciate discussions about a program that would potentially operate over several decades. As a graduate student, it was a lesson in the planning, extended time frame, and other programmatic logistics of collaborative science.

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My Evolution as a Long- Term Ecological Research Scientist

Long-Term Ecological Research ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199380213.003.0048 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

John J. Magnuson

Keyword(s):

College Education ◽

Associate Professor ◽

Solid Base ◽

Ecological Research ◽

Lake Ecosystems ◽

University Of Wisconsin ◽

Long Term Ecological Research ◽

The University ◽

Field Stations

My college education as a fish and fishery ecologist provided a solid base for my evolution to a scientist absorbed by the long-term ecology of lakes in the landscape. Graduate students in the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program and in my course lectures came to represent more disciplines and became more interdisciplinary, often addressing major ecological questions using long-term data. Viewing the dynamics of a time series and spatial maps became strong approaches in the LTER program for communicating with colleagues and the broader community. The LTER program would have failed without the realization and the broad application of collaboration. That is true, of course, for much of what we do. The LTER program is a great way to participate in and learn from a life of science teaching, research, application, and outreach. My association with the LTER program began in the late 1970s when I was a 41- year-old associate professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It continued through the remainder of my professional life to the present; I am now an 80-year-old emeritus professor at the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. I had been the program director for Ecology in the Division of Environmental Biology at the National Science Foundation (NSF) for 1 year (1975–1976) and saw the first movements toward such a program. I participated in all three NSF workshops in the late 1970s to consider and plan an LTER program. At the workshops, I represented the perspectives of limnology and our field site at the Trout Lake Station in northern Wisconsin. Ideas being discussed and planned were of great interest to me. I believed that research opportunities at field stations with this long- term approach were important to the ecological sciences and to biological field stations across the country. My colleagues and I at the University of Wisconsin–Madison responded to NSF’s initial call for proposals; we were one of the first six sites to be funded for a proposal entitled “Long-Term Ecological Research on Lake Ecosystems.”

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