Slow Research to Understand Fast Change

frozen streams emerging from a rocky, gray landscape

By harnessing decades of rich data, scientists are beginning to forecast future conditions and plan ways to manage, mitigate, or adapt to likely changes in ecosystems that will impact human economies, health and wellbeing.

Information Management Committee Bylaws Revision

two hands depositing ballots

The Executive Team of the LTER Information Management Committee has reviewed the Committee’s Bylaws and is requesting approval of several updates. The original impetus for the update (and the only change of any real significance) is to allow the Executive Committee to choose their own chair(s) rather than having chairs selected by the IMC. IM-Exec… Read more »

LTER Diversity Committee Hosts Community Building Seminars

May 11, 2021, Noon PT / 2 pm CT. Dr. Marta Berbés-Blázquez speaks on "Just Urban Futures"

One goal of the LTER Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee is to facilitate the formation of spaces for community-building among those of us who do not see our identities sufficiently represented in our professional spaces. The committee’s hope is that improving cross-site interactions can help LTER community members increase connections within their professional network, facilitate… Read more »

Academic Careers Panel

notebooks and coffee

Different types of academic institutions offer very different career paths, rewards, and opportunities. The job search process can also vary a great deal. How will you know where you want to land and how to get there, if you’ve only experienced the institution where you study? The LTER Graduate Student Committee and Network Office held… Read more »

Meet our LTER Graduate Student Science Writers for 2021!

person in black baseball cap, writing in notebook

We are excited to announce our 2021 cohort of LTER grad student science writers. We received a high number of impressive applications, and after much deliberation we are happy to introduce seven students who represent sites from across the network and who bring unique backgrounds, experiences, and talents to the team. Over the next year… Read more »

DataBits: Winter/Spring Edition of Site Bytes

The NES team, masked and socially distanced, on a research cruise in 2020

Below you’ll find the latest roundup of IM news from sites that have updates related to new staff, funding, project development. Luquillo LTER – Miguel Leon Greetings from the Luquillo (LUQ) LTER. I’m Miguel Leon, the newish Information Manager, starting in late 2019. I came to the LTER network after about 10 years working as… Read more »

New Book: The Challenges of Long Term Ecological Research: A Historical Analysis

book cover

Compiled by Bob Waide and Sharon Kingsland, with contributions from many authors across the LTER Network, this volume explores the challenges of sustaining long-term ecological research through a historical analysis of the Long Term Ecological Research Program created by the U.S. National Science Foundation in 1980. The book examines reasons for the creation of the… Read more »

LTER Workshop – Making REU Pre-Orientation Program Trailers

How do we make field experiences more approachable for students new to research and our study sites? To support participation by students underrepresented in science, we must work to balance out differences in prior experience and situational knowledge and to bridge cultural differences in perceptions of field work and field stations. One feasible approach is… Read more »

A User’s Guide to the LTERHub

Image of the LTERHub homepage with topics highlighted

The LTER Network has launched a new community platform, dubbed the LTERHub, to allow LTER participants to seek out colleagues with common interests and share information, questions, updates , and resources. The LTERHub will also be the home base for LTER committees and discussion groups going forward. Most active LTER participants have received invitations and… Read more »

Choose Your Poison: Plant Disease Outbreaks May Be Curbed by Periodic Wildfire

A controlled burn in Cedar Creek oakland

Wildfires have made headlines worldwide in recent years — and for good reason. Evidence points to increasing wildfire frequency and intensity across many vulnerable ecosystems as climate change impacts grow ever more evident. However, periodic wildfires in ecosystems adapted to them can actually help inhibit plant disease outbreaks, according to new research from Cedar Creek… Read more »