To promote analysis and synthesis of LTER data, the NCO requests proposals for Synthesis Working Groups, with research to begin before May 2017. Funding is available for 2-4 projects of up to 2 years in duration. The Project Selection Committee is most interested in proposals anticipated to return high impact results in the five core… Read more »
You’ve probably heard about Pokémon Go, the recent craze that has captured America and the world. After stealing the hearts of children over a decade ago, Pokémon are back — this time in our smartphones. People of all ages are tracking rare Pokémon, trying to “catch ’em all”. But what about interaction with the world that exists outside of our phones?
At Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (CDR), in East Bethel MN, community members have graduated beyond virtual quarry. There, they track living animals across the reserve. CDR’s new wildlife tracking citizen science program, the Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey, taps the same vein of enthusiasm as chasing Pokemon. It and other similar programs are making use of people’s passion for tracking and adventure and applying it to local data collection and exploration.
Summer 2016 Dear PIs and Site Managers, It was great to see so many of you in Santa Barbara for the LTER Science Council meeting. I hope you enjoyed our lovely city and began to get a sense of where the office is heading. I certainly got a much better feeling for the interests and energy of our wide-ranging… Read more »
— Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Blues Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck, and Dorothea Lange all documented the devastation of the Dust Bowl in works that remain resonant with Americans nearly a century later. Via song, prose, and photograph, these artists revealed the devastation wind erosion can wreck on a landscape and the people who rely on… Read more »
Following on the Ecological Theory working group at the 2015 All Scientists Meeting, please find attached an updated syllabus for a Fall 2016 distributed graduate seminar. The seminar series will engage scientists from key theoretical fields of ecology to speak about how long term research informs the evolution of that theory. Each week we will… Read more »
Long Term Ecological Research Network Communications Office (NCO) Call for Working Group Proposals In this packet, you will find all the information needed to submit a proposal to the NCO. Overview and Deadlines | Guidelines for Proposals | Synthesis Working Group | Download as pdf Informational Webinar February 12 at 8:30 a.m. PST (11:30 a.m. EST) Missed the webinar? See the webinar… Read more »
Ask any teacher to identify their students’ favorite question. The answer is universal: “Why do I need to learn this?” The Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Program, funded through NSF and LTER, seeks to give teachers the tools to answer this question in ways that excite and engage their students.
Of the approximately 400 Gigatonnes of carbon released into the atmosphere over the past 200 years, only half has remained in the atmosphere. The other half has been absorbed by the earth’s natural carbon sinks— global oceans, soils, and plants— slowing the amount of climate change we might otherwise observe. While the earth currently acts as… Read more »
The United Nations estimates that 33% of global soils are moderately to severely degraded, and that given average rates of erosion, topsoil could be gone in 60 years. In response, the UN General Assembly declared 2015 the International Year of Soils. Their goal: to take a decidedly prosaic topic — soil health — and make… Read more »
Global population continues to grow: the United Nations expects an additional 2.5 billion people by 2050, all of whom will be absorbed into urban areas. When demographers add rural to urban migrants to that number, they project an additional 3.1 billion city dwellers by mid-century. As the concentration of humans in cities surges, a better… Read more »
