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; Jackson R. Webster

doi:10.1525/bio.2012.62.4.9

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1 April 2012 Past, Present, and Future Roles of Long-Term Experiments in the LTER Network

Author Affiliations +

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,^******** Jackson R. Webster^**********

^*Alan K. Knapp (aknapp@colostate.edu) is affiliated with the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology and with the Department of Biology at Colorado State University, Fort Collins.
^**Melinda D. Smith and Kimberly J. La Pierre are affiliated with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut.
^***Sarah E. Hobbie is affiliated with the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul.
^****Scott L. Collins is affiliated with the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque.
^*****Timothy J. Fahey is affiliated with the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York.
^******Gretchen J. A. Hansen is affiliated with the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin—Madison.
^*******Douglas A. Landis is affiliated with the Department of Entomology and with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at Michigan State University, in East Lansing.
^********Jerry M. Melillo and Gaius R. Shaver are affiliated with The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
^*********Timothy R. Seastedt is affiliated with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and with the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
^**********Jackson R. Webster is affiliated with the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg.

BioScience, 62(4):377-389 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2012.62.4.9

Abstract

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.

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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 "Past, Present, and Future Roles of Long-Term Experiments in the LTER Network," BioScience 62(4), 377-389, (1 April 2012). https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2012.62.4.9

Published: 1 April 2012

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