DATA-MODEL ASSIMILATION CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE LTER PROGRAM

1. Jornada Basin Landscape Linkages LTER DATA-MODEL ASSIMILATION CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE LTER PROGRAM Debra Peters Lead Research Scientist, USDA ARS, Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, NM 88003-0003. debpeter@nmsu.edu Lead Principal Investigator, Jornada Basin Long Term Ecological Research program

2. Long Term Ecological Research Network: • national-level network funded continuously since 1980 • 26 sites and a network office • funded in 6 year increments by the National Science Foundation • http://www.lternet.edu

3. LTER network contains diverse ecosystems with common environmental problems – How can we understand and predict dynamics? Are there general principles and properties across sites?

4. 1915 1998 grasslands 37% shrublands 63% grasslands 8% shrublands 92% LTER from 1980 to 2004+: focus on site-based science and long-term data Grasslands 1858

5. Drivers Events Biotic structure Human behavior Long-term “press” Short-term “pulse” Ecosystem function Human outcomes Ecosystem services 2000 – future: added focus on network-level science Common conceptual framework for all sites Natural systems Human systems

6. LTER provides solid foundation for regional, continental, and global networks Rio Grande Network NM Energy Flux Tower Network (http://bosque.unm.edu/~cleverly/ ). http://www.p2erls.net/riogrande.html

7. National-level networks build on LTER sites EcoTrends Project (www.ecotrends.info) Led by Jornada LTER-ARS, NMSU

8. Objectives of EcoTrends Project • to create a platform for synthesis by producing a compendium of easily accessible long-term graphs and data (> 10 years) from ecological research sites • biogeochemistry • biotic structure • human economic and demographic • climate • (2) to illustrate the utility of this platform in addressing important within-site and network-level scientific questions • To date, > 50 sites and > 400 datasets are accessible through the EcoTrends project.

9. Global Network: Pole-to-Pole Ecological Lattice of Sites (P2ERLS); global “network of networks” (http://www.p2erls.net) Web portal to information about research sites (> 300 existing sites in the US to-date) Led by Jornada ARS-LTER, NMSU

10. Opportunities • Data and site information are available for use in models in derived, easy-to-use format (EcoTrends, P2ERLS) • Long-term datasets and sites can be added (EcoTrends) • Sites can be added to continental to global networks accessed via web portals (P2ERLS)

11. Compare same data from many different sites Cedar Creek Kellogg Shortgrass steppe Jornada Harvard Forest Hubbard Brook Coweeta Andrews Palmer Drought severity index (1895-2003)

12. Compare similar dynamics in different sites Kelp forest off CA coast Desert in NM (Laliberte et al. 2004) Santa Barbara Coastal LTER (California) Change in fish species composition with time Jornada ARS- LTER (New Mexico) State changes through time

13. Products 1. Folio-sized book to be submitted in Jan 2008 to Oxford Univ. Press 2. Website (data, metadata) for synthesis and analysis of static data (http://www.ecotrends.info) Opportunities Accessibility of many long-term data sets for modeling and synthesis activities