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July 15, 2017

Governance Update

The LTER Science Council and Executive Board met at Hubbard Brook, May 16-19, where they welcomed representatives of three new LTER sites, discussed some great science, and made a few key decisions:

  • LTER bylaws have been revised to refer to the Network Communications Office (NCO), rather than the LTER Network Office (LNO) and to clarify the relationships among the LTER Executive Board, the Science Council, the Network Communications Office, and the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI).
  • The Director of the LTER Network Communications Office will hold a voting seat on the LTER Executive Board and the Director of the Environmental Data Initiative will hold an ex officio seat on the LTER Executive Board. The Information Management and Education and Outreach Committees will continue to hold non-voting seats on the LTER Executive Board and the LTER Science Council.
  • The Science Council approved a recommendation by the Executive Board to update the LTER data access policy to reflect the movement towards open and unrestricted access to data. When no specific access policy is specified for a data set, the LTER data portal will now default to  a Creative Commons license requiring attribution (CC BY 4.0).
  • We appreciate the service of  Anne Giblin (PIE), Gary Lovett (HBR), and Sherrie Johnson (AND), who rotated off the Executive Board, and welcome new (and returning) EB members: Katherine Suding (NWT), David Foster (HFR), and Jess Zimmerman (LUQ).
  • The LTER Information Management Committee is meeting before the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Annual Meeting in Bloomington, Indiana, July 24.

Synthesis Activities

In addition to the five synthesis working groups currently underway, the LTER Science Council is working on products emerging from the 2017 and 2018 Science Council meetings.

  • Peter Groffman is pulling together a set of papers from each site on LTER Futures for a special issue of Ecosphere.
  • A team led by Evelyn Gaiser is organizing a manuscript that will elaborate a framework for understanding humans as an integral part of ecosystems.

LTER at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) Meeting

A listing of talks and posters being presented at ESA will be available shortly. Meanwhile please plan on joining us for:

The NCO is organizing three workshops at ESA, and will be promoting REU opportunities at the Diversity Luncheon, but will not have a booth this year. Workshops:

Communications Trainings

Curriculum materials from the NCO’s  8-week online, interactive course in science communications are now available online at  Telling the Right Story, for the Right People, at the Right Time. 

Save the Dates

  • The 2018 Science Council/Executive Board Meeting will be hosted by the Northern Temperate Lakes LTER. Madison, here we come!
    • May 15: Executive Board
    • May 16 & 17: Science Council
    • May 18 (a.m.): PI Meeting
  • Tentative dates for the 2018 All-Scientists Meeting are September 9-13th, 2018 at Asilomar Conference Grounds.
  • Can’t keep track of key LTER dates? The NCO maintains a calendar with key committee and Network-wide meetings.

NCO Personnel Update

After 22 years of dedication to improving the availability and usability of environmental data, Mark Schildhauer is retiring from the the day-to-day management of NCEAS computing, but he’ll continue to apply his talents to a variety of special projects.

Open Positions

To learn about LTER Network-related job openings as they arise, email downs@nceas.ucsb requesting to join opportunities@lternet.edu or visit our opportunities page.

Conferences and Special Issues

Abstracts for the Fall 2018 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Meeting are due August 2 (July 26 for early submission). Please include LTER or Long-Term Ecological Research in your abstract to help us find and promote your talk.

Also, consider submitting an abstract to Public Affairs session 013: How Does Your Geoscience Research Matter and Can You Explain How it Matters to the Public?

Newsletters

LTER Science update, issued monthly, provides brief, accessible summaries of recent science from across the Network. It is designed to inform partners, educators, and the broader ecological community as well as LTER Network scientists. Please share and encourage your colleagues to subscribe.

News from the NCO, issued quarterly, provides regular organizational updates to LTER-associated personnel.

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