Abstract
Long-term research provides a unique perspective on environmental processes, dynamics of populations and communities of organisms, and emergent properties of ecosystems. Many key ecological relationships can be obscured in short term studies by common features such as time lags, natural variability, nonlinear relationships, interactive drivers, or relatively slow processes. Aquatic ecosystems have yielded major scientific discoveries through long-term research, through both observational and experimental studies. These research results have ranged from the detection of multi-decadal climate oscillation effects on ecosystems to finer-scale understanding of the trophic and biogeochemical pathways through which nutrient pollution affects water quality. In this special issue of Limnology and Oceanography, the contributing authors demonstrate that—whether designed for the monitoring of managed natural resources, to answer fundamental scientific questions, or both—long-term research enables researchers to move far beyond their initial questions as unexpected dynamics are revealed over time. With the widespread maturation of long-term data sets and rapid emergence of new technologies that enhance research capabilities, opportunities for synthesizing knowledge are now creating unprecedented opportunity for scientific discovery that builds on this legacy of long-term aquatic research.
| Original language | English |
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| Pages (from-to) | S2-S10 |
| Journal | Limnology and Oceanography |
| Volume | 64 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2019 |
Funding
Concurrent with this recognition of the value of long-term research has been the broad acknowledgement that reliance of long-term programs on the tenacity of individual investigators is a fragile model. Accordingly, in the United States, NSF began investing in the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program in 1980, a national network that includes freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments, and the Foundation has established funding opportunities for supporting independent long-term ecological studies. Importantly, renewal of these long-term grants is contingent on favorable evaluation of prior activities, including open access to data, as well as the proposal of creative new questions and tractable research plans. Coordination of activities across sites creates efficiencies and synergies, and opportunities for comparative studies, making the network more than the sum of the parts (Franklin et al. 1990; Swanson and Sparks 1990). The U.S. LTER sites have contributed important knowledge on topics ranging from biogeochemistry and ecosystem ecology to trophic dynamics, providing the capability for not only engaging in whole-lake experiments at the sites but then following the results over subsequent decades. The 28 contemporary LTER sites include both freshwater and marine ecosystems, urban and remote environments, from the polar regions to the tropics. The duration of the Arctic stream research associated with the LTER program (Kendrick et al. this issue) has been key to identifying trends in an inherently “flashy” ecosystem, particularly as rapid warming and permafrost thaw have contributed not only to changes in flow but also increasing nutrients. Similarly, the duration of the North Temperate Lakes LTER data has allowed detection of decadal scale effects of lake level on water clarity (Lisi and Hein this issue).
| Funders |
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| Dr. Robert Mathys Foundation (RM Foundation) |