ILTER
Meeting - London - 7/16/2001
The meeting began with introductions around
the room. A list of attendees is
attached to this report. Bob Waide
conveyed Jim Gosz’ regret at not being able to attend the meeting. After a review of the agenda, the business
section of the meeting opened with regional reports.
Africa
- Henschel
The
African regional network is the newest regional network and is still in
formation. One national network has
been officially constituted (Namibia) and five other countries are in the
process of developing networks (Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Botswana, and
South Africa). All are part of SADC
-Southern African Developing Countries.
Conditions
for research are somewhat different in this region. There are no national science councils except in South Africa),
and therefore government support is mostly in terms of recognition rather than
funding. Interactions with researchers
elsewhere highly relevant to these networks.
Opportunities
within the region include diverse habitats, big reserves, crucial dependence by
many people on natural resources, unique atmospheric conditions, existing
institutional infrastructure, and extensive experience in transdisciplinary
research.
The
next regional meeting is planned for Mozambique in late July 2002. Participants will be researchers and
information managers from southern Africa and other ILTER regions. There will be a training workshop for
information managers as part of this meeting.
The goal of this workshop will be to create a framework for collecting,
managing, and sharing data in southern Africa.
Central
and Eastern Europe - Lang
The
region now has a total of 25 ILTER sites (Czech Republic 7, Hungary 3, Poland
7, Slovak Republic 5, Ukraine 3).
Thirty participants attended the last regional meeting, which was held
in Prague in April. There were 17 oral
and 5 poster presentations on the program.
The business meeting discussed aims and periodicity of regional
meetings, and it was decided that the regional meeting would be held every two
years. The next CEE regional meeting
will be in Zvolen, Slovakia in 2002, linked to the IUFRO conference
(International Union of Forest Research Organizations). Other topics included
organization of regional networking, development of joint projects for
coordination, a web page, perspectives of cooperation within common projects,
and funding problems. A series of cross
site activities were discussed, including the effects of forest health on
biodiversity, ecosystem processes in alpine systems, effects of disturbances on
semiarid grassland dynamics, detritus input, removal and transfer - DIRT
project, and GTOS.
A
workshop for information managers was held in Vacratot, Hungary, led by John
Porter, Kristin Vanderbilt, and Peter McCartney of the U.S. LTER program.
Thirteen regional participants attended the meeting.
East-Asia
- Pacific - King
The
regional meeting decided that future meetings would be held every two
years. The formation of an information
managers’ network was also discussed. A
workshop at the ASM provided a focus on decomposition processes and led to the
decision to develop a cross-site experiment. TERN will organize, host and
conduct additional meetings to coordinate this cross-site experiment.
An
information management workshop was just completed in Mongolia, and focused on
building an information managers’ network in association with the San Diego
Supercomputer Center.
The
People’s Republic of China is expanding the number of sites in their network
from 29 to 39. The Chinese Ecological
Research Network has offered to host the 2003 ILTER annual meeting in Xian,
Shan-xi Province.
The
Taiwanese Ecological Research Network (TERN) has added a coral reef site to its
network. Hen Biau King has been active
in meeting with scientists in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. Malaysia and the Philippines are both
working to develop networks.
Latin
America - Barbosa
Argentina
has no network yet, but has some sites.
They are working towards a decision to join.
Brazil’s
network started officially in 1999 with 9 sites. There is only a small budget - so far - $75K /year for each site,
but they are working on other government agencies. On September 4th,
the National Research Council – CNPq – launched a national competition for
three more sites focusing on Caatinga (Dry Decidous Forest in the North-east),
Cerrado (Savannah type), and Pantanal Region (Wetlands in the Central Region of
the country) biomes. A workshop on
Evaluation and Perspectives of the Brazil-LTER was held in Brasília-DF with
CNPq and other national agencies, and the coordinators/vice-coordinators of the
existing sites from which a synthesis-document shall be published by the end of
November 2001. Furthermore, a book on the Brazil-LTER program, containing the
main features of the sites is in final preparation and will be published by the
end of November 2001. An English version is also under consideration aiming to
inform about the program and hopefully to help find partners and financial
support.
Costa
Rica has a network of 12 sites, focusing on standardization of collected
information, meteorological stations, training at OTS, and a joint project
called ECOMAPAS.
Chile
has not begun officially, but there are sites doing LTER research. They are working on an initiative combining
commercial and research activities.
Major challenges include lack of collaboration among institutions and
maintaining communication.
The
Latin American Regional Network met in April 2001 in Bariloche, Argentina, as
part of the first joint meeting of the Argentine and Chilean Ecological
Societies, attended by over 1000 scientists.
Meetings will be held annually, and an executive committee will govern
the regional network. Topics currently under consideration include connectivity,
educational programs, student exchanges, standardization of data banks, minimum
standard installations, and creation of the Americas Regional Network. The web site for the Latin American Regional
Network is at: http://ceimo.ing.ula.ve/LA-ECORED/ECORED.
The
Latin American Pilot Project is moving forward, with possibilities
including a decomposition project in
terrestrial ecosystems and possible relations between productivity and biological
diversity.
Middle
East – Perevolotsky
There
are two official LTER sites in Israel established about a decade ago and
recognized by the ILTER network three years ago. Both stations are in the dry
part of the country. One station is located at 200 mm/year and focuses on the
semi-arid ecosystem and combating desertification. The second station is
located at 300 mm/year and focuses on grazing impact. These two stations are
part of a cooperative project with Palestinian colleagues at two sites
supported by Sandia National Laboratories. Meteorological data are being
collected along ecological gradient of rainfall to allow ecological
generalization across the political border.
There
is another functioning LTER site (operated for the last 15 years) that will
apply for recognition in 2002.
North
American – Vaughn
There
are no resources to do very much, but we need to do more. We are working on establishing listserv for
all of North America. Next year the
ILTER annual meeting will be at the annual meeting of EMAN.
Western
Europe – Parr
Only
two countries in Western Europe have LTER networks, but it is a fashionable
idea and there is interest in a number of countries. There is a proposal in the
offing for an EU-LTERNET with a strong social dimensions.
Problems
in developing networks include haphazard interest, lack of coordination at
national level, and lack of W. European coordination. Strong links need to be established with E. European network. There may be a need for a meeting to set guidelines
to identify partners in each country.
The European Environmental Agency should be able to help make connection
work by funding workshop to help with coordination. There are some good examples of needs for long-term data in
"Late lessons from Early Warnings" report.
LTER
Network Office - Waide
Dr.
Sonia Ortega will join NET in September on detail from NSF. Her specialty is graduate education, but she
will work both with educational and international programs at NET.
NET has
requested and received supplemental funds from NSF for regional meetings. Each region must decide when they will have
their meeting and what countries will be invited.
NET is
working on developing liaison groups for regional networks. These groups consist of US LTER scientists
who will participate in ILTER activities in each region. The purpose of these liaison groups is to on
scientific activities by
engaging a broader group of people. To date, the following groups have
been formed:
Africa
– Harris, Knapp, Sanford, Carpenter, Parmenter
East
Asia/Pacific - Hamburg, Ojima, Covich, Goulden
Central
Europe - Gosz, Lajtha, Vanderbilt, Peters, Kloeppel, Macko, Baron, Bowman
Latin
America - Waide, Lugo, Franklin, Reynolds, Lauenroth, Burke, Chapin, Dueser,
Silver, Williams, Willig, O’Brien
John Vande Castle
(jvc@lternet.edu) gave a presentation on the current status of the GTNET-NPP
project. MODIS data products have been
available starting in June of 2000. It
will soon be possible to compare site-specific data to MODIS and other sensor
products. Data have been downloaded for
some sites listed in the TEMS (Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling Sites) database,
specifically about 25 sites participating in the GTOS NPP project. For comparison of ground and satellite
product data, sites must be located 1 km.
For this level of accuracy, site location to the nearest tenth of a
minute is required, so sites need to be located to the nearest degree, minute
and second. It may be possible to loan
GPS equipment for researchers to better locate their validation sites.
Several recent workshops
have addressed issues important to the GTNET project. A workshop on carbon flux scaling addressed issues of scaling
from ground observations to 1 km cells.
A MODIS LAI validation workshop was also held recently. The BIGFOOT project has also developed a
spatial sampling strategy for scaling up measurements
(http://www.fsl.orst.edu/larse/bigfoot),
Next steps include: 1) get
precise coordinates for each site, 2) potential for FAO purchase of LANDSAT
data for each sites, 3) get additional measurements from
sites of LCC, LAI, NPP, and
4) do peer-reviewed publication.
ECOBAS
- Joachim Benz
ECOBAS
is a modeling database that provides standard documentation for ecological
models. Aims include 1) complete,
consistent and correct documentation, 2) standardized documentation, 3) improve
availability of the documentations, 4) coupling reliable documentation and
source code, 5) improve transferability.
The benefits of documenting models include: 1) convenient access to
information, 2) reduce misuse and abuse of models, and 3) reduce duplication of
effort. The ECOBAS WWW server provides
two major information services, a registry of ecological models (REM), in which
600 models are documented and there are 200-300 users a day, and the ECOBAS
database. The ECOBAS modeling assistant
(EMA) can manage models and modules, check completeness, syntax and consistency,
make database queries, is easily transferrable to text documents and simulation
systems (MATLAB, SCILAB, SIMUL), and provides for import and export of
models. ECOBAS has asked for
affiliation with LTER.
GBIF
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility - C.L. Hauser
http://www.gbif.org & http://www.gbif.net
GBIF is
based on a memorandum of understanding between governments and international
organizations to develop a federation of biodiversity databases, in which
individual members retain control. The
focus is on the taxonomic level (not genetic or ecological - yet). Criteria for member ship include: a) signing
the MOU, b) making a financial commitment, c) sharing scientific biodiversity
data with GBIF, and d) having at least one GBIF node. The scale for contributions based on Gross Domestic Product, and
ranges from 500 to 700K dollars.
Governance
involves a governing board - delegates from all countries and organizations that join
GBIF. Science and scientific and
technical advisory groups (STAGs) include invited experts, along with
delegates. The goals of GBIF include:
1) database interoperability, 2) catalog of known organism names, 3)
digitization of natural history collections, 4) "species bank"
(public oriented tool to provide for each species ecological information,
photos etc.), 5) digital biodiversity literature sources, 6) training and 7)
outreach. GBIF invites ILTER and
national networks to join.
Zambia - application for ILTER membership
Dr.
Harry Chabwela made a presentation on Zambia’s application for ILTER member
ship. Ecological research in Zambia
faces many of the same problems that it does in other countries:
1) most scientists operate as
individuals and in isolation
2) data is usually filed, lost of
discarded without being used
3) data in most cases has stopped
because of lack of funding
4) research has died after researcher
has died
5) important research has been
pursued as a hobby
6) large degree of data entropy
The
lead agency for the Zambian LTER will be the University of Zambia. The selection of a university as the lead
institution contrast with most other national networks, in which a government
or private agency sponsors the network.
In Zambia, this solution is impractical because of current institutional
arrangements. Ministries and
departments are sectional, and ministries cannot coordinate other
ministries. The national council for
scientific research was dismantled, and the existing environmental council has
a narrow focus.
The
University of Zambia was established 1966 after independence. Units of the University that would
participate in the LTER program include Natural Sciences, the Schools of Mines,
Engineering, Agriculture, and the Institute of African Studies. The University of Zambia offers to make a
commitment of space, Internet connection, funding, and staff. A national LTER committee has been formed
with UNZA as lead.
Business Meeting
Three
main issues were discussed at the business meeting: 1) application for
membership by Zambia, 2) possible interactions with ECOBAS, 3) possible
interactions with GBIF.
Zambia
petition
The
presentation by Mr. Chabwela sparked a discussion of the criteria for
membership in the ILTER Network.
Because the petition by Zambia represented a new national model for
LTER, considerable discussion focused on the criteria for recognizing and
organizing a national network, that is national or government institution
sponsorship. The discussion recognized that other potential ILTER members could
advance models similar to that proposed by Zambia, and therefore clear
definitions and criteria were needed.
In particular, the developing Western European network already faces the
need to embrace a common strategy.
After this discussion, a motion to accept Zambia as an ILTER network
passed unanimously.
ECOBAS
Since
ECOBAS is clearly not the same thing as a national network, the central
question was whether we wanted to stretch our criteria to accommodate them or
perhaps to develop a new category for affiliation. The major difference between
ECOBAS and member networks is that ECOBAS is a project rather than an
organization. As a project it has a
specific focus that might prove useful for developing cross-network
collaborations. However, we need to
evaluate the utility of ECOBAS before making a judgment. As a first step we should encourage LTER
sites to use ECOBAS as a repository for models.
The
consensus of the group was that a new affiliation status should be developed to
accommodate petitions such as this one and to provide a mechanisms to form
partnerships between data producers such as LTER and data users. Several examples of such partnerships were
mentioned, including conservation organizations, internationally recognized
scientific societies, and socioeconomic projects. A definition of this new
class of affiliation and criteria for acceptance are needed. This may include development of a standard
MOU and requirement for nomination by an existing network. In the meantime, a motion was made and
accepted to table the application of ECOBAS until criteria for a new class of
affiliation could be developed.
GBIF
Discussion
about GBIF touched on many issues. The
invitation to attend the meeting was extended to GBIF with the understanding
that they were seeking affiliation with ILTER.
However, the presentation made clear that ILTER was being asked to join
GBIF, at unknown cost to ILTER. There seem to be few advantages to ILTER in
joining GBIF, and many possible disadvantages. There was concern about the
structure of GBIF, about the fact that payment was required for membership,
about the location in Copenhagen, about the lack of representation from less
developed but high biodiversity countries, and about the possibility of
political entanglement. At the same
time, if GBIF obtains the resources they are projecting ($500 million),
participation by ILTER might help to focus the wise expenditure of these funds.
There was also concern that GBIF would compete with LTER networks for
funding. Taiwan was mentioned as an
example.
Further
discussion was postponed until more information could be obtained. In particular, we need clarification about
what GBIF expects of us. Some member networks are already national members of
GBIF. The question is whether the
affiliation would be mutually beneficial.
An ad
hoc committee to discuss affiliation criteria was formed and included Mick
brown, Bob Waide, Eun-Shik Kim, Hen Biau King, and Gerardo Ceballos. A meeting was scheduled for Thursday before
the banquet.
Future
meetings
2002 –
Ottawa, Canada – April 9-13, in association with annual EMAN meeting:
"Development of Coordinated Monitoring in Land and Seascapes" in
Ottawa
2003 –
two options: LTER All Scientists Meeting, or in association with East Asia
Pacific regional meeting in Xian, Shan-xi Province, China. This latter meeting is scheduled for
September 10, 2003.
2004
and 2005 – Brazil and Mexico
Other
meetings
2002 -
Koreans will host INTECOL - August 2002.
ILTER should have a presence there.
Kim is member of the organizing committee. Symposium suggestions are due before end of September. Suggestions about possible symposia should
be given to Waide.
Discussion
issues from All Scientists Meeting
Visits to promote LTER
None needed aside from planned South Africa meeting (Mozambique,
July 2002), and perhaps Thailand,
Training - information management
Need to formalize more intensive IM training apparatus. US LTER is considering scheduling a single
training session yearly, open to all
Other options
For Latin America, OTS
may perform training
A training session
could be associated with 2002 EMAN meeting
Connectivity
Continues
to be a problem, mostly of financing
ILTER newsletter
General agreement that such a newsletter would be a good
idea. It should be both paper and
electronic. King and Ceballos will put together an outline, and Waide will
edit.
Educational programs/materials
Waide will talk to Ortega when she gets to NET about what has
been done in Asia
Metadata/standardization
Continuing problem.
Development of MORPHO software by National Center for Ecological
Analysis and Synthesis might be good jumping off point. Further discussion at EMAN meeting
Funding opportunities
The
need for strategic planning is evident in this area.
Minimum Standard Installation
The MSI is very linked to funding strategy. Suggestions include basic infrastructure,
building repair and expansion, computers and software, meteorological stations,
and maintenance money. EMAN is willing
to circulate a list of items from NEON.
Follow
up discussions from working groups
A
working group (Waide, Barbosa, Ceballos, Vaughn, Parr, King, Kim) met later in
the week to discuss issues left unresolved at the business meeting.
Criteria
for national networks
The
working group identified key criteria for acceptance of the petition of a
national network. The overriding criterion
is recognition by a government body or private sector entity acting at the
national level. Other criteria include:
-
existence
of a national committee or other management structure
-
a set
of proposed sites with criteria for selection of new sites
-
a statement
of collective purpose which might include defined research or monitoring themes
-
a
data management and accessibility policy
-
prospects
for long-term stability of the program
Criteria
for other kinds of affiliation
The
group concluded that other kinds of classes of affiliation would be useful, but
that these must be carefully defined.
Characteristics of organizations with which affiliations might be
developed include the existence of expertise that would complement ILTER
research programs. The affiliation must
be mutually beneficial and must support the core goals of ILTER. For some affiliations, formal memoranda of
understanding will have to be developed.
Themes for which affiliating organizations might be sought include:
information management and technology, modeling, research management and
administration, communications, public education, biodiversity, conservation,
invasive species, and resource management.
ILTER Committee Meeting
London
July 16, 2001
Participant List
Robert B. Waide rwaide@lternet.edu
Department of Biology/LTER Phone: (505) 272-7311
University of New Mexico Fax: (505) 272-7080
Albuquerque, NM 87131
USA
John Vande Castle jvc@lternet.edu
Department of Biology/LTER Phone: (505) 272-7315
University of New Mexico Fax: (505) 272-7080
Albuquerque, NM 87131
USA
Mick Brown mickbrown@forestrytas.com.au
Division of Forestry Tasmania Phone: +61 3 6233 8202
199 Macquarie Street
Hobart, Tasmania 7000
Australia
Paolo Cherubini paolo.cherubini@wsl.ch
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL Phone: +41 1 7392278
CH-8903 Birmensdorf
Switzerland
Gordon Ringius Gordon@queticocentre.com
Quetico Centre Phone: 800-929-3511
PO Box 1000
Atikokau, Ontario
Canada Potico
Hague Vaughan hague.vaughan@ec.gc.ca
EMAN Coordinating Office Phone: 905-336-4410
Environment Canada
867 Lakeshore Road
Burlington, Ontario Canada
L7R 4A6
Jaroslav VRBA vrba@hbu.cas.cz
Hydrobiological Institute ASCR Phone: +420 38 7775872
Na Sádkách 7
České Budejouice
C2-37005 Czech Republic
Josef HEJZLAR hejzlar@hbu.cas.cz
Hydrobiological Institute ASCR Phone: +420 38 7775876
Na Sádkách 7
České Budejouice
C2-37005 Czech Republic
Biological Sciences Student Association (BIOSSA) jebrenus@yahoo.com
University of Science and Technology
Department of Biological Sciences
KUMASI – West Africa
Mike Morecroft mdm@ceh.ac.uk
NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Field Laboratory
Wytham, Oxford OX2 8QJ
UK
Dr. Joh Henschel jhenschel@drfn.org.na
Desert Research Foundation of Namibia Phone: +264 61 229855
PO Box 20232 Fax: +264 61 230172
Windhoek
Namibia
Eun-Shik Kim kimeuns@kookmin.ac.kr
Kookmin University Phone: +82 2 910 4814
Department of Forest Resources Fax: +82 2 910 4809
Seoul 136-702
Korea
Jana Müllerová mullerova@ibot.cas.cz
Institute of Botany web: www.ibod.cas.cr
Academy of Sciences CR Phone: +420 2 71015207
252 43 Průhonice
Czech Republic
Edit Kovács-Láng lange@botanika.hu
Institute of Ecology and Botany
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
H-2163 Vácrátót, Hungary
Yue Joe Hsia yjhsia@mail.ndhu.edu.tw
National Dong-hua University
Shoufang, Hualien 974
Taiwan
Hen-Biau King hbking@serv.tfri.gov.tw
Taiwan Forestry Research Institute Phone: +886 2 2303-9978 ext: 1408
53 Nan-hai Road Fax: +886 2 2375-2164
Taipei 100, Taiwan
Dr. Július Oszlányi director@uke.savba.sk
Institute of Landscape Ecology Phone: +421 2 5249 3882
Slovak Academy of Sciences Fax: +421 2 5249 4508
Stefánikova 3
PO Box 254
814 99 Bratislava, Slovakia
Francisco Barbosa barbosa@mono.icb.ufmg.br
Dept. Biologia Geral – ICB Phone: +55 31 3499 2591
Federal University of Minas Gerais Fax: +55 31 3499 2567
PO Box 486
30161-970 Belo Horizonte MG Brazil
Dr. Gerardo Ceballos gceballo@miranda.ecologia.unam.mx
Instituto de Ecologia Phone: +52 5 622 9004
UNAM, CU
APDO Postal 70-275
Mexico D.F. 04510
John Porter jporter@lternet.edu
Department of Environmental Sciences Phone: (434) 924-8999
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903
USA
Harry Chabwela HChabwela@natsci.unza.zm
University of Zambia Phone: +260 1 295416 (home)
Department of Biological Sciences
Box 32379
Lusaka, Zambia
Michael Mirtl, Ph.D. mirtl@ubavie.gu.at
Federal Environment Agency Phone: +0043 1 31304-3410
Spittel Auer Lände J
1090 Wien
Austria
Christoph Häuser chaeuser@gmx.de
Naturuundemuseum Phone: +49 711 8936 223
Rosenstein 1
D-70191 Stuttgart, Germany
Avi Perevolotsky avi_per@hotmial.co.il
Department of Natural Resources
The Volcani Center
PO Box 6
Bet Dagan 50250
Israel