Program Description:

Katerina Potesta assists with planting native species at the CEMEX Florida East Coast Quarry Wetland Reclamation project

The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Education Program is an NSF funded, nonprofit, collaborative organization dedicated to best practices and leading advancements in the training, teaching, and learning about the Earth’s ecosystems. It ability to implement long-term educational initiatives allows for unique approaches to train future researchers and to learning and teaching ecological concepts. Evaluating and disseminating this approach through the involvement of graduate and undergraduate students, postdoctoral scientists and other professionals, K-12 educators and students, and the general public will help ensure the success of long-term ecology in the future.

Overarching mission

To use the uniqueness of the LTER programs and network to promote training, teaching, and learning about long-term ecological research and Earth’s ecosystems.

Unique features associated with LTER include:

• Long term research, detecting patterns and phenomena of importance that are not typically discernible through short-term study.
• Cross-site comparison and synthesis, taking advantage of parallel methodologies, data availability, and a culture of collaboration and synthesis.
• Study of large-scale systems, phenomena, and processes affecting significant portions of the globe.
• The sustained nature of our individual and collective programs, allowing long-term relationships to build between scientists and various education communities.
• The LTER culture of inclusion, cross- and inter-disciplinary thinking, and application to real problems.