November 2, 2016
Synthesis
The LTER-NCO received nineteen proposals for Synthesis Working Groups in the October call for proposals. The review committee meets in late November and selections will be announced in December.
Meanwhile, the Metacommunities Working Group got started with a bang, hosting a very successful workshop at ESA and their first meeting at the LTER-NCO in September.
Mark your calendars
The NSF mini-symposium is scheduled for March 21, 2017. Keep an eye on the web site for topics and speakers.
The annual Executive Board meeting is scheduled for May 16, 2017 at Hubbard Brook LTER. The Science Council meeting will follow on May 17th, 18th, and 19th.
Communications Trainings
By popular demand, the NCO is hosting a discussion of video abstracts and video shorts on November 17, 2016. Pre-registration is required and background reading is recommended.
Through a collaboration with SciFund Challenge, the NCO is offering an 8 week online, interactive course in science communications fundamentals: Telling the Right Story, for the Right People, at the Right Time. The course will run from January 8-March 4, 2017.
Meetings and Outreach
ILTER: Almost 50 US LTER researchers were among the 300 delegates at ILTER’s first open science meeting, held October 9-13 in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Meeting highlights included workshops on uncertainty in long-term research, distributed experiments, and visits to the many long-term sites operated by SANParks and SAEON.
AGU Meeting: LTER researchers will present over 100 talks and posters at the American Geophysical Union meeting, December 12-16. Find a list of LTER-related talks on the LTERNET web site. Did we miss yours? Drop a line to nco-comm@lternet.edu to add it. And next year, be sure to include “LTER” somewhere in your affiliation or abstract!
OBFS Annual Meeting: Matt Jones presented at the Organization of Biological Field Stations Annual Meeting Sept 21-25 in Sitka, Alaska on behalf of the LTER-NCO and the Network. He encountered strong interest in developing collaborative working group proposals.
NCO Personnel Update
The NCO welcomes our new Education Lead, Sam Norlin. He’ll continue as Project Director for the Raising Educational Achievement through Cultural Heritage (REACH Up) Project at University of Alaska-Fairbanks while devoting 30% of his time to stewarding the LTER Network education effort.
LTER 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 Network scientists. Please share and encourage your colleagues to subscribe.
News from the NCO, issued quarterly, provides regular organizational updates to LTER-associated personnel.
LTER Mailing List Reference
Quick! Which email lists reaches site administrators and which reaches site PI’s? The NCO has recently updated the major centrally-managed email lists and added this handy reference page to the web site.
Open Positions
- The Central Arizona-Phoenix LTER is seeking a program manager. Deadline is November 10. Spread the word, fast.
- The Environmental Data Initiative is seeking a data manager. Deadline: November 21.
- Santa Barbara Coastal LTER seeks a data manager.
- NCEAS is currently seeking a deputy director, a scientific programmer, and a training and outreach coordinator.
Conferences and Special Issues
LTER is partnering with ESA to get out the word about their annual Life Discovery Conference, which highlights leading science, curriculum design, implementation, and data exploration for high school and undergraduate education. Proposals for short presentations and hands-on workshops are being accepted until December 15, 2016
Science of the Total Environment is planning a special issue on detecting and explaining natural and anthropogenic changes by making use of large extent, long-term ecological research facilities of the international long-term ecosystem research (ILTER) network.
They are particularly interested in regional or global studies. To inquire about contributing a manuscript, email peter.haase@senckenberg.de by December 1, 2016, with: Name of author(s), institute, country, indicative title, abstract.
ESA invites proposals for Workshops, Special Sessions, Field Trips, and Ignite Sessions for the 2017 Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. The meeting theme is “Linking biodiversity, material cycling and ecosystem services in a changing world.”
