International long-term ecological research: priorities and opportunities

Abstract

ong-term data are now recognized as crucial to our understanding of en- vironmental change and management. His- torically, these studies have been difficult to maintain owing to (1) the dominance of short-term funding programs, (2) a mis- conception that long-term studies are merely a means of monitoring, and (3) an emphasis on short-term experimentation or hypothesis testing of specific interactions or processes under the assumption of equi- librium conditions. We now realize that the concept of equilibrium may be a seriously misleading way of viewing the worldr-3. The recent review by a special committee of the Ecological Society of America on the Future of Long-term Ecological Data (FLED) called for new initiatives to protect and increase our ability to manage ad- equately long-term data sets for future sci- entists4. The National Science Foundation (USA) responded to the need for support of long-term studies by initiating a program in Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) in 1980 (Ref. 5). The LTER program has now grown to a network of 18 sites across the continental USA and Antarctica, serv- ing as a resource for nearly 1400 scientists and students glttp://LTERnet.edu). This networking of scientists and sites is an important objective for the program. The need for collaborations among the numer- ous scientists and high-quality programs that are involved in understanding the various areas of our globe is an even stronger argument for the development of a worldwide network of LTER sites and programs. As a result of an international meeting in 1993 an International LTER (ILTER) Network was formed with a mis- sion to facilitate international cooperation among scientists engaged in long-term ecological research. The main objectives are to: . promote and enhance understanding of long-term ecological phenomena across national and regional boundaries