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Abstract Many research and monitoring networks in recent decades have provided publicly available data documenting environmental and ecological change, but little is known about the status of efforts to synthesize this information across networks. We convened a working group to assess ongoing and potential cross‐network synthesis research and outline opportunities and challenges for the future, focusing on the US‐based research network (the US Long‐Term Ecological Research network, LTER) and monitoring network (the National Ecological Observatory Network, NEON). LTER‐NEON cross‐network research synergies arise from the potentials for LTER measurements, experiments, models, and observational studies to provide context and mechanisms for interpreting NEON data, and for NEON measurements to provide standardization and broad scale coverage that complement LTER studies. Initial cross‐network syntheses at co‐located sites in the LTER and NEON networks are addressing six broad topics: how long‐term vegetation change influences C fluxes; how detailed remotely sensed data reveal vegetation structure and function; aquatic‐terrestrial connections of nutrient cycling; ecosystem response to soil biogeochemistry and microbial processes; population and species responses to environmental change; and disturbance, stability and resilience. This initial study offers exciting potentials for expanded cross‐network syntheses involving multiple long‐term ecosystem processes at regional or continental scales. These potential syntheses could provide a pathway for the broader scientific community, beyond LTER and NEON, to engage in cross‐network science. These examples also apply to many other research and monitoring networks in the US and globally, and can guide scientists and research administrators in promoting broad‐scale research that supports resource management and environmental policy.
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Steering operational synergies in terrestrial observation networks: opportunity for advancing Earth system dynamics modelling
Abstract. Advancing our understanding of Earth system dynamics (ESD) depends on thedevelopment of models and other analytical tools that apply physical,biological, and chemical data. This ambition to increase understanding anddevelop models of ESD based on site observations was the stimulus forcreating the networks of Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER), Critical ZoneObservatories (CZOs), and others. We organized a survey, the results of whichidentified pressing gaps in data availability from these networks, inparticular for the future development and evaluation of models that representESD processes, and provide insights for improvement in both data collectionand model integration. From this survey overview of data applications in the context of LTER andCZO research, we identified three challenges: (1) widen application ofterrestrial observation network data in Earth system modelling,(2) develop integrated Earth system models that incorporate processrepresentation and data of multiple disciplines, and (3) identifycomplementarity in measured variables and spatial extent, and promotingsynergies in the existing observational networks. These challenges lead toperspectives and recommendations for an improved dialogue between theobservation networks and the ESD modelling community, including co-locationof sites in the existing networks and further formalizing theserecommendations among these communities. Developing these synergies willenable cross-site and cross-network comparison and synthesis studies, whichwill help produce insights around organizing principles, classifications,and general rules of coupling processes with environmental conditions.
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- PAR ID:
- 10085925
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Earth System Dynamics
- Volume:
- 9
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2190-4987
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 593 to 609
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-593-2018
