Geographical and Thematic Distribution of Publications Generated at the International Long-Term Ecological Research Network (ILTER) Sites - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 209

Consequently, information and perspectives expressed in the published literature
may be less sensitive to socio-ecological phenomena and concepts grounded in
other regions.
The geographic bias is also grounded in the uneven distribution of ILTER sites
around the globe. As illustrated in Fig. 13.2 , currently vast zones in the African,
Asian and Latin American continents lack LTER networks. Consequently, current
long-term ecological and socio-ecological research programs are missing some of
the world's most diverse countries and regions in terms of both biological and cul-
tural diversity.
Regarding cultural diversity, it is critical to note that standards and embedded
concepts employed by LTER networks to obtain and share data, and to collaborate,
do not facilitate sharing or reuse of data and underlying theories that lack a tabular
or matrix representation of discreet values (Li 2014 ). This is clearly seen in discus-
sions about “long-term” data sets and observations valued for their large quantita-
tive size in time or geography, and in the information infrastructures that make such
data desirable, describable, achievable, and sharable. Diffi cult to fi t into that model
are interview transcripts, images of interactions among human and natural commu-
nities, or models of such interactions. In particular, LTER's EML standard to
describe ecological data encodes a bureaucratic hierarchical understanding of eco-
logical knowledge production and prioritizes attribution rather than stewardship of
data (Li 2013 ). Nature is thereby framed in service of largely individual knowledge
discovery, rather than in terms of stewardship, advocacy, or responsibility for the
underlying life processes and relationships.
The conceptual bias is expressed in the scarcity of publications in the social
sciences. The recent call to implement long-term socio-ecological research in the
ILTER network (Maass and Equihua 2015 in this volume [Chap. 14 ]) will have
to address the fact that less than 0.5 % of ILTER publications are indexed in
social sciences bibliographic databases. However, it is promising that the South
Temperate region (Zone E), especially Chile, is leading the publications in the
humanities and arts, accounting for over 99 % of ILTER publications in these
thematic areas. Additionally, the Chilean LTSER network is generating method-
ologies to integrate ecological sciences and environmental ethics that can be
adapted by LTER programs in other regions (Rozzi et al. 2008 ; Aguirre Sala
2015 in this volume [Chap. 15 ]).
During the last decade Northern Hemisphere LTSER networks in the US
(Redman and Miller 2015 in this volume [Chap. 17 ] ), Europe (Singh et al. 2013 ),
and Japan (Shibata 2015 in this volume [Chap. 3 ] ) have called attention to the need
to incorporate social dimensions of ecological research into ILTER. To achieve this
goal, we need to consider how research infrastructures might emerge and be adapted
to suit those needs. Presently, LTER networks across the world have largely adopted
and adapted the US LTER's infrastructure for meta-data, and with it notions of what
is or is not to be considered valid forms of research. For example, the Kepler work-
fl ow engine is becoming increasingly optimized to handle large anonymous sensor
networks, and offers little value to handling interview transcripts. The GBIF data