The contrast between the first and second LTER All Scientists meetings makes clear how far we have come as a network and as a research program
This issue of the newsletter recognizes the second LTER All- Scientists Meeting, held in September 1990. Judging from the response I have received since, it was a very successful effort. The outstanding location in montane Colorado and a good organizational structure certainly helped. We owe the Coordinating Committee planning group, led by John Magnuson, a “well done.” And special thanks go to the LTER Network Office staff, who did an outstanding job of facilitating the meeting.
The All Scientists meetings were conceived as a major network- building activity. They provide an opportunity for a large number of scientists from the LTER sites to learn about each others’ research and to build the basis for multi-site collaborations. We also made a significant effort at the Colorado meeting to reach out to programs, sites, and scientists outside the LTER Network.
Collaborative Research
With its many and varied working sessions, last fall’s meeting was very successful at encouraging collaborative research efforts. There were meetings on technological innovations, such as the use of geolocators and applications of remote imagery, and the potential uses of construction cranes in studies of forest canopies. Common issues, such as the development .of on-line data sets and a protocol on data sharing, also received attention. Multi-site syntheses, observations, experiments and modeling exercises were formulated. Many moved from discussion to action stages. For example, a decision was made to summarize and contrast atmospheric chemistry at all of the LTER sites; and an intersite experiment on macroinvertebrate control of leaf decomposition in streams and a major expansion of the current intersite litter decomposition experiment were planned.
Workshop Products
Products from the workshops are making their way into the literature to reach an even broader community of ecologists. In one case, authors representing eight sites are contributing papers to an upcoming issue of Ecological Modelling devoted to LTER modeling efforts. Papers will include considerations of extrapolations from sites to regions, regional predictions, belowground processes, effects of local land use on regional climates, successional modeling across major ecosystem types, and carbon balance models.
The contrast between the first (held in 1984, Lake Itasca, Minnesota) and second LTER All Scientists meetings makes clear how far we have come as a network and as a research program. The Lake Itasca meeting was almost entirely devoted to “getting acquainted.” At that time, there were only 11 sites and no network office. Intersite collaboration in research was very limited. There were no multi-site experiments and little in the way of multi-site synthesis and modeling. Some agreements existed regarding data management objectives but there was no Minimum Standard Installation--indeed, there was great resistance to setting any hardware and software standards at all.
We have come a long way in seven years. I look forward to seeing how much more progress we make before our next All-Scientist meeting in 1993!