HUMAN ACTIVITIES have dramatically altered the Earth’s biosphere and atmosphere during the past few hundred years (Vitousek et al. 1997). Fragmentation and land-use have modified and reduced availability and quality of natural habitat. In addition, greenhouse gasses have modified the capacity of the atmosphere to hold and release heat. Climate variability and change, and land cover and land use change, are key drivers in the dynamics of populations, communities, and ecosystems at multiple spatial and temporal scales (Chapin et al. 1997). Prolonged experimental and observational measurements are now required to adequately address many fundamental ecological and evolutionary questions associated with changes in habitat quality and abundance, increasing amounts of greenhouse gases, and increased climatic variability. The value of long-term ecological and evolutionary research has been acknowledged repeatedly (Strayer et al. 1986, Likens 1989, Tilman 1989, Cody and Smallwood 1996). Studies on natural selection and population dynamics of Darwin’s finches (Grant 1999), interactions among granivore species in desert grassland communities (Ernst and Brown 2001), and biogeochemical fluxes on experimental watersheds at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (Likens 1999) provide ample evidence of the value of sustained, long-term ecological and evolutionary research. Despite their obvious merit, long-term research projects remain relatively uncommon for reasons ranging from size and duration of research awards to constraints imposed by the academic reward system (Gosz 1999). Given the extent of human influence on the global environment, it is