Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
14.4
The Role of ILTER in the Earth Stewardship Initiative
Moving from the current dominant disciplinary science to a more interdisciplinary
approach is a requirement for the study of global change and its consequences for
society. Seeking ways to deal with this challenge has been present in the admoni-
tions and efforts of several international research organizations endeavoring to
effectively prevent environmental deterioration on Earth. Such are the cases of the
International Geosphere and Biosphere Program (IGBP) and its social counterpart,
the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IHDP)
Program. They have documented the magnitude of the problem, the urgency of tak-
ing actions, and the need of long-term research and monitoring to understand the
causes and consequences of global change. Other initiatives focused on more spe-
cifi c aspects such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) launched to
evaluate the state of ecosystem services at regional and global scales, and their
importance for the human wellbeing. This initiative not only documented the fragil-
ity of our life support system, but also the severity of knowledge fragmentation and
the diffi culties of the world scientifi c system to conduct interdisciplinary research
(Norgaard
2008
). As we will describe next, the International Long Term Ecological
Research Network (ILTER) is also engage in this effort to conduct socioecosystem
research for a sustainable earth stewardship (Maass and Equihua
2014
).
14.4.1
Vision and Mission
ILTER envisions a world in which science helps to prevent and to solve environ-
mental and socio-ecological problems. ILTER contributes to solving international
ecological and socio-economic problems through question and problem-driven
research, with a unique ability to design collaborative, site-based projects, compare
data from a global network of sites, and detect global trends (
www.ilternet.edu
)
.
Most ILTER members are national or regional networks of scientists engaged in
long-term, site-based ecological research and monitoring. They have expertise in the
collection, management, and analysis of long-term environmental data. Together they
are responsible for creating and maintaining a large number of unique long-term
datasets (Parr
2013
). ILTER is a natural partner to global initiatives, and many
members of its community have been participating in these international programs.
14.4.2
From LTER to LTSER
There has been a natural evolution of scientifi c groups of ecologists interested in
long-term research to move from strictly ecological research (LTER) to a more
socio-ecological research (LTSER; Fig.
14.1
). One of the main objectives of LTER,
30 years ago, was to fi ll up the knowledge gap created by the established scientifi c
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