Abstract
The U.S. Long Term Ecological Research (US-LTER) program consists of 26 research sites involving a wide range of ecosystem types and concentrates on the interactions of multiple ecosystem processes that play out at time scales spanning decades to centuries. Long-term data sets from programs such as US-LTER provide a context to evaluate the pace of ecological change, to interpret its effects, and to forecast the range of future biological responses to change.
The primary challenges for LTER type research during its history involved sustaining funding, partnership development to sustain growth, maintaining continuity in objectives, and linking scientists and data through communication and cooperation. These challenges have been successfully addressed over the decades of the US-LTER program through close cooperation and coordination of the scientific community and the funding agencies for these programs.
The scientific community benefits much from working with colleagues around the world that have other experiences, social cultures, and knowledge bases. Ultimately, the mission of LTER and the International LTER Network is to incorporate understanding of the role of humans in the environment to inform policy makers and translate understanding into action.
As the US-LTER Network approached its fourth successful decade of scientific achievement in the ecological sciences, it developed a scientific plan for the future to provide a unifying framework that proposes to understand how humans perceive the critical services provided by ecosystems at multiple human scales, how these perceptions change behavior and institutions, and how these changes in turn feed back to affect ecosystem structure and function and the ability of ecosystems to continue to deliver services over the long term. This initiative called Integrative Science for Society and the Environment will allow increased collaboration, experimentation, and synthesis that take full advantage of the power of a Network approach.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Benstead, J. P., March, J. G., Pringle, C. M., & Scatena, F. N. (1999). Effects of a low-head dam and water abstraction on migratory tropical stream biota. Ecological Applications, 9, 656–668.
Callahan, J. T. (1984). Long-term ecological research. BioScience, 34, 363–367.
Childs, J. E., Ksiazek, T. G., Spiropoulou, C. F., Krebs, J. W., Morzunov, S., Maupin, G. O., et al.(1994). Serologic and genetic identification of Peromyscus maniculatus as the primary rodent reservoir for a new hantavirus in the southwestern United States. Journal of Infectious Diseases, 169, 1271–1280.
Corujo, I. N. (1980). A study of fish populations in the Espíritu Santo River Estuary. Master’s thesis. University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras.
Edmondson, W. T. (1991). The uses of ecology: Lake Washington and beyond. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Fievet, E., Tito de Morais, L., Tito de Morais, A., Monti, D., & Tachet, H. (2001). Impacts of an irrigation and hydroelectric scheme in a stream with a high rate of diadromy (Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles): Can downstream alterations affect upstream faunal assemblages? Archiv für Hydrobiologie, 151, 405–425.
Forbes, S. A. (1887). The lake as a microcosm. Bulletin of the Peoria Science Association. Reprinted in the Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin, 15, 537–550.
Franklin, J. F., Bledsoe, C. S., & Callahan, J. T. (1990). Contributions of the long-term ecological research program. BioScience, 40, 509–523.
Golley, F. B. (1993). A history of the ecosystem concept in ecology: More than the sum of the parts. Connecticut: Yale University Press.
Hobbie, J. E., Carpenter, S. R., Grimm, N. B., Gosz, J. R., & Seastedt, T. R. (2003). The US long term ecological research program. Bioscience, 53, 21–32.
Institute of Ecology. (1977). Experimental ecological reserves: A proposed national network. Washington, DC: National Science Foundation.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). The Physical Science Basis: The Fourth Assessment Reports, Cambridge University Press.
Kratz, T. K., Benson, B. J., Blood, E. R., Cunningham, G. L., & Dahlgren, R. A. (1991). The influence of landscape position on temporal variability in four North American ecosystems. American Naturalist, 138, 355–378.
Kratz, T. K., Magnuson, J. J., Bayley, P., Benson, B. J., Berish, C. W., Bledsoe, C. S., et al.(1995). Temporal and spatial variability as neglected ecosystem properties: Lessons learned from 12 North American ecosystems. In: Rapport, D. & Calow, P. (Eds.), Evaluating and monitoring the health of large-scale ecosystems (pp. 359–383). New York: Springer.
Kratz, T. K., Webster, K. E., Bowser, C. J., Magnuson, J. J., & Benson, B. J. (1997). The influence of landscape position on lakes in northern Wisconsin. Freshwater Biology, 37, 209–217.
Kratz, T. K., Webster, K. E., Riera, J. L., Lewis, D. B., & Pollard, A. I. (2006). Making sense of the landscape: Geomorphic legacies and the landscape position of lakes. In: Magnuson, J., Kratz, T. K., & Benson, B. J. (Eds.), Long-term dynamics of lakes in the landscape: Long-term ecological research on north temperate lakes (pp. 49–66). Oxford University Press.
Likens, G. E., Borman, F. H., Pierce, R. S., Eaton, J. S., & Johnson, N. M. (1977). Biogeochemistry of a forested ecosystem. New York: Springer.
Lindeman, R. L. (1942). The trophic-dynamic aspect of ecology. Ecology, 23, 399–418.
LTER. (2007). The Decadal Plan for LTER: Integrative Science for Society and the Environment. LTER Network Office Publication Series No. 24, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Magnuson, J. J. (1990). Long-term ecological research and the invisible present. BioScience, 40, 495–501.
Magnuson, J. J., & T. K. Kratz. (2000). Lakes in the landscape: Approaches to regional limnology. Verhandlungen Internationale Vereinigung für Limnologie, 27, 74–87.
Magnuson, J. J., Kratz, T. K., & Benson, B. J. (Eds.). (2006). Long-term dynamics of lakes in the landscape: Long-term ecological research on north temperate lakes. New York: Oxford University Press.
Magnuson, J. J., Kratz, T. K., Frost, T. M., Bowser, C. J., Benson, B. J., & Nero, R. (1991). Expanding the temporal and spatial scales of ecological research and comparison of divergent ecosystems: Roles for the LTER in the United States. In: Risser, P. G. (Ed.), Long-term ecological research. Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.
March J. G., Benstead, J. P., Pringle, C. M., & Ruebel, M. R. (2001). Linking shrimp assemblages with rates of detrital processing along an elevational gradient in a tropical stream. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 58, 470–478.
March J. G., Pringle, C. M., Townsend, M. J., & Wilson, A. I. (2002). Effects of freshwater shrimp assemblages on benthic communities along an altitudinal gradient of a tropical island stream. Freshwater Biology, 47, 377–390.
March, J. G., Benstead, J. P., Pringle, C. M., & Scatena, F. N. (2003). Damming tropical island streams: Problems, solutions, and alternatives. BioScience, 53, 1069–1078.
Marzolf, G. R. (1982). Long-term ecological research in the United States: A network of research sites 1982. In: Halfpenny, J. C., Ingraham, K. & Hardesty, J. (Eds.), Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network.
Michener, W. K., & Brunt, J. W. (2000). Ecological data: Design, management and processing. Oxford: Blackwell Science.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. (2005). Ecosystems and human well-being: Current state and trends. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Nichol, S. T., Spiropoulou, C. F., Morzunov, S., Rollin, P. E., Ksiazek, T. G., Feldmann, H., et al. (1993). Genetic identification of a hantavirus associated with an outbreak of acute respiratory illness. Science, 262, 914–917.
Ortiz-Zayas, J. R., & Scatena, F. N. (2004). Integrated water resources management in the Luquillo Mountains, Puerto Rico: An evolving process. Water Resources Development, 20, 387–398.
Parmenter, R. R., Brunt, J. W., Moore, D. I., & Morgan, E. S. (1993). The hantavirus epidemic in the Southwest: Rodent population dynamics and the implications for transmission of hantavirus-associated adult respiratory distress syndrome (HARDS) in the Four Corners region. Sevilleta LTER Publication No. 41, 1–45.
Pringle, C. M. (1997). Exploring how disturbance is transmitted upstream: Going against the flow. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 16, 425–438.
Pringle, C. M., Hemphill, N., McDowell, W. H., Bednarek, A., & March, J. G. (1999). Linking species and ecosystems: Effects of different macrobiotic assemblages on interstream differences in benthic organic matter. Ecology, 80, 1860–1872.
Riera, J. L., Magnuson, J. J., Kratz, T. K., & Webster, K. E. (2000). A geomorphic template for the analysis of lake districts applied to the Northern Highland Lake District, Wisconsin, USA. Freshwater Biology, 43, 301–318.
Robertson, G. P., Allen, V. G., Boody, G., Boose, E. R., Creamer, N. G., Drinkwater, L. E., et al.(2008). Long-Term Agricultural Research (LTAR): A research, education, and extension imperative. BioScience, 58, 640–645.
Rosenberg, D. M., McCully, P. & Pringle, C. M. (2000). Global-scale environmental effects of hydrological alterations. BioScience, 50, 746–751.
Swanson, F. J., & Sparks, R. E. (1990). Long-term ecological research and the invisible place. BioScience, 40, 502–508.
Tansley, A. G. (1935). The use and abuse of vegetational concepts and terms. Ecology, 16, 284–307.
Thorp, J. H., & Delong, M. D. (1994). The Riverine Productivity model – An heuristic view of carbon-sources and organic-processing in large river ecosystems. Oikos, 70, 305–308.
Tilman, D. (1989). Ecological experimentation: Strengths and conceptual problems. In: Likens, G. E. (Ed.), Long-term studies in ecology: Approaches and alternatives (pp. 136–157). New York: Springer.
Vannote, R. L., Minshall, G. W., Cummins, K. W., Sedell, J. R., & Cushing, C. E. (1980). The river continuum concept. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 37, 130–137.
Webster, K. E., Bowser, C. J., Anderson, M. P., & Lenters, J. D. (2006). Understanding the lake-groundwater system: Just follow the water. In: Magnuson, J. J., Kratz, T. K., & Benson, B. J. (Eds.) Long-term dynamics of lakes in the landscape: Long-term ecological research on north temperate lakes (pp. 19–48). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Webster, K. E., Kratz, T. K., Bowser, C. J., Magnuson, J. J., & Rose, W. J. (1996). The influence of landscape position on lake chemical responses to drought in northern Wisconsin. Limnology and Oceanography, 41, 977–984.
Webster, K. E., Soranno, P. A., Baines, S. B., Kratz, T. K., Bowser, C. J., Dillon, P. J., et al.(2000). Structuring features of lake districts: Landscape controls on lake chemical responses to drought. Freshwater Biology, 43, 499–515.
Yates, T. L., Mills, J. N., Parmenter, C. A., Ksiazek, T. G., Parmenter, R. R., Castle, J. R., et al.(2002). The ecology and evolutionary history of an emergent disease: Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Bioscience, 52, 989–998.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gosz, J.R., Waide, R.B., Magnuson, J.J. (2010). Twenty-Eight Years of the US-LTER Program: Experience, Results, and Research Questions. In: Müller, F., Baessler, C., Schubert, H., Klotz, S. (eds) Long-Term Ecological Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8782-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8782-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-8781-2
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-8782-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)