The LTER Network has grown from a handful of independent sites to a true network with cross-site experiments, synthetic science, coordinated data management, and standard community practices. LTER community members managed a great deal of that growth, with modest financial support from the LTER Network Office in the form of working group funds. The record of past working groups is – in many ways – a record of the focus and priorities of the LTER Network through time.

Working Group Title Principal Investigator Type Award Year Final Report
Ecosystem transitions: increased variability and regime shifts Cristina Portales-Reyes, University of Georgia, Y. Anny Chung, University of Georgia , 2021
Identifying environmental drivers of plant reproduction across LTER sites Jalene La Montagne, DePaul University, Elizabeth Crone, Tufts University, Miranda Redmond, Colorado State University , 2021
From poles to tropics: A multi-biome synthesis investigating the controls on river Si exports Joanna Carey, Babson College, KathiJo Jankowski, US Geological Survey 2020
Ecological Metagenome-derived Reference Genomes and Traits (EMERGENT) Jeff Blanchard, UMass Amherst/HFR, Janet Jansson, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Jorge Rodrigues, UC Davis, Lee Stanish, NEON, Margaret O’Brien, UC Santa Barbara, Jason McDermott, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 2020
A global synthesis of multi-year drought effects on terrestrial ecosystems Kate Wilkins, Colorado State University, Osvaldo Sala, Peter Wilfahrt, University of Bayreuth, Laureano Gherardi, Melinda Smith 2020
Synthesizing population and community synchrony to understand drivers of ecological stability across LTER sites Lauren Hallett, Daniel Reuman, Katharine Suding , 2017
Advancing soil organic matter research: Synthesizing multi-scale observations, manipulations & models Will Wieder, Kate Lajtha , 2017
Scaling-Up Productivity Responses to Changes in Biodiversity Forest Isbell, Jane M. Cowles, Laura Dee , 2017
Integrating plant community and ecosystem responses to chronic global change drivers Kimberly Komatsu, Meghan L. Avolio, Kevin R. Wilcox , 2016
Global Patterns in Stream Energy and Nutrient Cycling Adam Wymore, Sujay Kaushal , 2016
A synthesis to identify how metacommunity dynamics mediate community responses to disturbance across the ecosystems represented in the LTER network Eric Sokol, Christopher Swan, Nathan Wisnoski , 2016
Identifying Alternative Indicators for the Detection of Abrupt Transitions in Ecosystems: a Consideration of Time Scale and Community Parameters 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Managing sensor networks and data: Best practices for LTER 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Veg-DB Phase 2: Developing a cross-site system to improve development and access to synthetic vegetation databases 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Training Workshop for Site Science Communicators 2012 Final Report (PDF)
2013 LTER Training Workshop Proposal – Remote Data Acquisition 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Training working group: Climate and streamflow seasonal trend analysis at LTER sites 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Soil Biogeochemistry: Synthesis of Past Data and Development of Protocols for a New Long-Term, Network-Wide Data Stream 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Urban aquatic ecosystems: a synthesis working group proposal 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Mechanisms of convergence and divergence: understanding the variability of plant community responses to multiple resource manipulations 2012 Final Report (PDF)
A guide to successful graduate student socio-ecological research: Insights from the Long Term Ecological Research Network 2012 Final Report (PDF)
The Ecosystem Sensitivity to Rainfall Experiment (EcoSeRE): Design and Synthesis 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Sensitivity of ecosystem properties to winter climate anomalies 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Enhancement of the LTER Controlled Vocabulary to Support Data Synthesis 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Exploring the Seasonal Synchrony of Catchment Nitrogen Dynamics: The Search for a Unifying Theoretical Framework 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Coastal Wetland Ecology and Geomorphology 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Linking aquatic and soil organic matter across ecosystems through characterization of optical properties 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Beyond the Numbers: Supporting an increasingly diverse LTER community 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Cross site analysis and synthesis of the role of vegetation, sediment supply, sea level rise and storminess on intertidal coastal geomorphology 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Cross site analysis and synthesis of arts and humanities engagement within LTER 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Atmospheric correction to LTER Landsat catalog 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Leveraging PASTA and EML-based Workflow Tools for LTER Data Synthesis 2012 Final Report (PDF)
A synthesis of LTER community data to test metacommunity theory under different ecological conditions Eric Sokol 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Training workshop: Software tools and strategies for managing sensor networks 2012
GeoNIS Implementation with PASTA 2012
Establishing High Quality Digital Collections of LTER Educational Resources 2012
Responses of soft sediment coastal ecosystems to sea level rise and coastal squeeze in the LTER Network 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Synthesis of stream ecosystem responses to nutrient enrichment at multiple trophic levels , 2012 Final Report (PDF)
Defining Checks to Ensure High Quality LTER Data Packages 2011
Retrieving and using information from web services to improve EML content 2011
Land Use Institutions, Land Use Land Cover Change, and the Distribution of Ecosystem Services 2011
SiteDB redesign to accommodate ClimDB/HydroDB and StreamChemDB 2011
EML Diagnosis and Best Practice Implementation Mentor 2011
LTER Personnel Database Web Services Development 2011
Tools and training for sensor network establishment and management 2011
LTER Metabase Software-as-a-Service development 2011
Acquisition and management of data from remote locations 2011 Final Report (PDF)
Integrating Local Knowledge into Long Term Ecological Research – MALS Training and Planning Workshop 2011 Final Report (PDF)
Bi-stability in North American ecosystems: analyzing woody plant cover for temporal stable-state dynamics 2011 Final Report (PDF)
Climate effects on ANPP of saltmarshes of the North American Atlantic coast – a hierarchical model approach 2011 Final Report (PDF)