I t was a typical field trip. A group of ecologists inside a Chevy Suburban worked on a laptop computer and talked as they bounced along the gravel road that would end up 14 hours later at a small field station in northern Alaska. Those conversations in the wilderness, Gosz says, ultimately resulted in the November 1997 addition of Baltimore, Md., and Phoenix, Ariz., sites to the LTER network. These choices mark a new direction in ecology.
Ecology is the science of the relationship among organisms and their environment.
The new sites join a network of research areas designed to answer questions about ecological processes that occur over long periods. Now, with the addition of Baltimore and Phoenix, the network has expanded to 20 sites. Part of every LTER site's research program is designed to answer five core questions, Gosz says. Unlike most ecological research projects, which are funded for only 3 years, LTER programs are initially funded for 5 or 6 years, at the end of which the funding is usually renewed. As a result, scientists now have more than 18 years' worth of information on some of the oldest LTER sites.