HISTORY OF LTER

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HISTORY OF LTER

• HOW HAS THE PROGRAM EVOLVED SINCE 1981?
• or
• PLEASURES AND GROWING PAINS OF COLLABORATIVE
  RESEARCH
• or
• LONG-TERM REFERS TO THE TIME DOMAIN OF CHANGE,
  NOT THE FUNDING PERIOD

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OBJECTIVES - Why are we doing this presentation?

• Understand the evolution of the LTER program
  (strengths, problems).
• View our site in terms of the diversity of
  approaches to long-term research and ways to
  conduct interdisciplinary science.
• Provide a perspective of what I believe are
  significant milestones in development of NTL and
  INTERSITE LTER program.
• Look at LTERNET site http//www.lternet,edu/rese
  arch/pubs

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Three topics in 10 minutes

• Growth and development of LTER and intersite
  milestones
• Milestones and strengths of the of NTL approach.
• Site diversity and its role in LTER success

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Highlights in Development

• Funding and growth of sites since 1981

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Timeline of Sites
PLU
BES
The LTER Network has grown to 21 sites since its
inception in 1980. Each site is funded and
reviewed separately on six year cycles. The
network as a whole is reviewed every five years.
CAP
MCM
PAL
HFR
SEV
LUQ
VCR
KBS
HBR
BNZ
ARC
JOR
CDR
ILL
OKE
SGS
NWT
NIN
KNZ
CWT
AND
NTL
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
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Highlights in Development

• Funding and growth of sites since 1981
• Development of coordination structure
• Centralized coordinating site to support of
  intersite activities
• Encouragement of intersite activities
• Committees, Workshops, Meetings, Publications,
  Catalogs, ...
• Competitive supplemental funding (equipment,
  social sciences, )
• Initiation of ILTER program and LTER leadership

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Milestones/issues in growth

• IBP Ghosts (Resolution of Bottom Up vs Top Down
  design)
• Getting to know you (Coordination among sites)
• Competitive teamwork (Consensus Building and
  Growth of LTER)
• Finding who your friends are (Encouraging
  Intersite activities)
• All Scientist Meetings (L. Itasca, Estes Park
  (2))
• Data management and intersite cooperation (the
  first)
• Committees Climate, Technology, .
• Publications, Data Catalogs, Directories
• Eliminating paranoia (Developing data access
  policies)
• Taking the reins (Leadership in development of
  ILTER)

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Milestones in Growth of NTL

• Working group meeting in Summer 1980 at Trout
  Lake (brainstorming, outlining, self-selection)
• Successful as first cohort of six sites 1981
• Hired key personnel at site.
• Role in conducting workshops at Trout Lake (3)
• 1988 -Intersite comparison (spatial and temporal
  scales)
• 1996 -Ice Phenology as a climate indicator
• 1997 -Lakes in the Landscape (organization of
  lake districts)
• Strong participation in intersite activities
• Competitive funding for augmentation grants
• Adding the human dimension

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Philosophy - North Temperate Lakes

• Early meetings of an internal advisory
  committee (Winter, Goldman, Frey, ) stimulated
  survey and final selection of lakes (common
  groundwater system)
• Initial focus was on comparative limnology from
  Birge and Juday data (1926-41) with comparable
  measurements from 1981-82.
• Concept of legacies in limnology (data collection
  that will outlive the investigators)
• Focus on research monitoring of core data with
  goal toward looking at long-term change.
• Living with resource limitations (integrators,
  core data, proxies)
• Shared resources (Site mgr., Trout lake
  specialist, Chem. lab specialist, Data Manager)
  and common data pool.
• Initially the only Lake site and we were driven
  to find ecosystem parallels among sites (led to
  first intersite comparison at Trout Lake 1988)
• Group meetings aimed at cross-disciplinary views
  of our site.

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CONTRASTS IN SITE ORGANIZATION Determines the
way we communicate/collaborate

• Relationship to research site and "intellectual
  centers"
• Dispersed vs Localized intellectual centers
• Inter- vs Multi- disciplinary
• Strong Individual vs Collective organization,
  cooperation
• Data Management
• Maintaining contact

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Relationship to research site and "intellectual
centers"

• Distance to sites from PI centers
• Near - VCR, KNZ, SGS, NWT, CAP, CDR, SEV (JOR)
• Intermediate - AND, CWT, NTL, LUQ, BES,
• Far - ARC, MCM, PAL, (JOR)
• Seasonality
• Seasonal - MCM, PAL, ARC
• Year Round - All other sites

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Dispersed vs Localized intellectual centers

• Localized -
• AND, BNZ, CAP, CDR, HFR, KBS, KNZ, NTL, NWT, SEV,
  SGS, VCR,
• Dispersed -
• ARC, BES?, HBR, JOR , LUQ, MCM, PAL,
• Imposes structure on solutions to communication
  among PIs and other site researchers

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Approaches to site management

• Inter. vs Multi. disciplinary
• 1) Resource Sharing - NTL characteristic
• Easier if all PIs at same institution
• 2) Pie splitting - More individual based support
  of PI's and their technical help.
• Forced upon sites with geographically dispersed
  PIs
• Opted for by some sites even if not
  geographically dispersed

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Strong Individual vs Collective organization,
cooperation

• Key to long-term survival of site
• Two failed sites lacked distribution of
  responsibility and had strong, less collaborative
  PI
• One existing site was restructured in response to
  conflicting views of strong PI's.

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Role of data management in advancement of science

• Conflicts in resource allocation
  (management/administration vs research)
• Record keeping vs integrated datasets
• Short-term and long-term personnel and continuity
• Data Sharing (PI control vs Data Mgmt. Control)
• Data integration (within and among sites)
• Choice of operating system and platform
• Top down vs bottom up design
• Program development vs commercial software

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Maintaining contact

• Intersite, Coordinating Meetings
• All Scientist meetings
• Data Management
• Collaborative Research Promotion
• Core Data vs Individual Research
• Comparing approaches to same site (Crystal Lake)

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SO WHAT?

• Diversity among sites is great, but provides
  workable models for success.
• NTL has long record of LTER activity and draws
  strength from our interdisciplinary orientation
  and intersite participation.
• Sharing resources and promoting multidisciplinary
  activities are important.

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END
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Highlights in Development

• 1977-1979 Three NSF workshops from which the idea
  of the LTER program developed (Two UW scientists
  involved, Magnuson and Ragotzkie)
• 1980 Six sites funded first year Steering
  committee meeting in Washington, DC
• 1981 Five sites added. NSF supports coordination
  grant (KSU)
• 1981, Sept. Univ Colo (Steering Comm. meeting)
• First efforts at intersite comparison (NPP
  estimates from across ecosystems lack of
  unanimity, but recognized need for intersite
  activities.

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• 1982 Growing pains. (Steering Comm. Meet at
  North Inlet Estuary, SC)
• Bottom up vs Top Down discussion and multiplying
  opinion by two.
• The problem? What are the important intersite
  questions, and how much should answering such
  questions draw on funding support for intrasite
  activities.
• 1982, Dec. Meteorology Committee (Ragsdale,
  Swift)
• Meteorological committee formed to establish
  standards for measurement and reporting of
  meteorological measurements.
• MSI (Minimum Standard Installation) concept for
  meteorological measurements
• 1982, May - Data Management meeting
• (Gull Lake, MI, Gorenz, Lauff)

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• 1982, Nov - First all-site data management
  meeting in Illinois.
• 1982 - Support of workshops under coordinating
  grant.
• 1983 Coordinating grant moves to OSU under
  Jerry Franklin (Steeering Committee Chair) and
  network office established.
• 1983, Sept meeting of Intersite group at KSU.
• 1984, May All Sci. Meet, Gull Lake, MN
• 1985? Climate comparison meeting (NMSU, Conley,
  )
• Later served as "template" for the Committee and
  developed by David Greenland.

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• 1985 First All-Scientist meeting at Lake
  Itasca, MN
• 1988 - Executive Committee names (4 site members
  plus chair of LTER-CC)
• 1989 Coordination committee grant awarded to
  Franklin at U. Wash., network Data manager named.
• CERN exchange/collaboration the beginning of
  ILTER.
• 1990 - Second All-Scientist's meeting, Estes
  Park, CO.
• 1992 - Global environmental research document
  (LTER 2000)

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• 1993 -Third All-Scientist meeting in Estes Park,
  CO
• 1993 - ILTER initiated
• 1994 - Augmentation grants to NTL and CWT
• Gosz named new Exec. And Intersite moved to
  Albuquerque.

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