On July 18 - 20, 1996 a workshop on a "Common Future" for Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER), Land Margin Ecosystem Research (LMER) and joint Global Ocean Flux Study UGOFS) time series programs was held on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The central question of the workshop was: Should the LMER and ]GOFS time-series programs become continuing research efforts, and should they be merged with the existing LTER program? A summary of the recommendations of the joint workshop is as follows. Participants unanimously recommend that NSF expand the LTER program through open national competition(s) for sites representing land margin, oceanic and other marine systems.
Supporting recommendations include:
- Funds that currently support the LMER program with fixed-term funding for current research sites should be used to support long-term, land-margin sites and that the designation of such sites be accomplished through national competition.
- Oceanic or deep water ecosystems also merit long-term ecologic study and that support now invested in the time-series portion of the fixed-term JGOFS program should be directed to support oceanic LTER sites and that the designation of such sites be accomplished through national competition.
- Finally, it was the view of the workshop that LMER and JGOFS did not represent the full spectrum of important marine ecosystems that require long-term programs for ecological study and it is recommended that new funds should be sought to establish LTER sites for a wider range of marine ecosystems.
More than 40 people from the broader scientific community submitted electronic comments through a homepage that was established to foster more extensive comments on this workshop's topic and these comments are appended to this report. The outside comments were generally consistent with the opinions of workshop participants and they have largely been incorporated into this report. They lend considerable support to the recommendations of the workshop.