LTER

LTER stands for Long-Term Ecological Research Network. It is a program supported by the National Science Foundation in the United States to fund long-term ecological research across a network of sites. Initiated in the 1980s, the program seeks to understand ecological processes over time scales of years to decades and to study how ecosystems respond to natural variation and human impacts.

The network includes dozens of core research sites across diverse ecosystems, such as forests, grasslands, deserts, wetlands, lakes, and Arctic environments. Each site collects long-term data and conducts experiments and observations, contributing to both site-level studies and cross-site syntheses coordinated by the LTER Network Office.

A central feature is standardized data management and open access. The LTER Information Management System stores data and metadata from sites and supports data sharing, reproducibility, and cross-site analyses. The program also supports training, education, and collaborations among universities, government agencies, non-profits, and local communities.

LTER research informs understanding of ecological resilience, climate impacts on ecosystems, biodiversity change, and the interactions between humans and natural systems. Findings help inform conservation, land management, and policy discussions. The LTER network is part of the broader International Long-Term Ecological Research Network (ILTER), linking researchers around the world to advance long-term ecological understanding.