Long-Term Trends in Ecological Systems: A Basis for Understanding Responses to Global Change is now available FREE to anyone interested in viewing trends in long-term ecological data from diverse ecological sites. The writing style, background information, and large number of color photos, maps, and graphs allow users across a range of expertise to understand the information, and to use that information for within-site and cross-site comparisons. This book and its accompanying website (http://www.ecotrends.info) are products of the EcoTrends Project, a major collaborative effort involving scientists, students, and staff from all Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites, the LTER Network Office, and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists.
EcoTrends was the first project of its kind to synthesize large amounts of long-term data from 50 sites-- primarilyLTER sites funded by the National Science Foundation and the USDA Forest Service and Agricultural Research Service. These sites were selected to represent a wide range of ecosystem types, including forests, grasslands and shrublands, freshwater lakes and streams, near coastal marine and estuaries as well as urban areas and systems in the Arctic and Antarctic.
The book is a reference volume for scientists, graduate and undergraduate students, postdocs, as well as land managers, K-12 teachers and students, and anyone interested in ecological science. The book contents will be available soon for free download from several online locations, such as the LTER (www.lternet.edu) and Jornada (http://jornada.nmsu.edu) websites, although the hard copy, with lots of color, is more appealing and is a great conversation starter with scientists and non-scientists alike. To obtain copies of this book, please contact Debra Peters at debpeter@nmsu.edu.
Citation: Peters DPC, Laney CM, Lugo AE, Collins SL, Driscoll CT, Groffman PM, Grove JM, Knapp AK, Kratz TK, Ohman MD, Waide RB, and Yao J. 2013. Long-term trends in ecological systems: a basis for understanding responses to global change. USDA Agricultural Research Service Publication No. 1931. Washington, D.C.