Arts and Humanities Efforts in the US Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network: Understanding Perceived Values and Challenges - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 255

Please rank the relative value of each potential contribution of arts and humanities inquiry to LTER goals.
Arts and humanities research contributes to or enables:

Understanding

To understand a diverse array of ecosystems at multiple spatial and temporal scales

To create general knowledge through long-term interdisciplinary research, synthesis
of information, and development of theory

Synthesis

To inform the LTER and broader scientific community by creating well-designed
and well-documented databases

Information

To create a legacy of well-designed and documented long-term observation,
experiments, and archives of samples and specimens for future generations

Legacies

To promote training, teaching, and learning about long-term ecological research
and the Earth's ecosystems, and to educate a new generation of scientists

Education

To reach out to the broader scientific community, natural resource managers,
policymakers, and the general public by providing decision support, information,
recommendations and the knowledge and capability to address complex
environmental challenges

Outreach

Conservation To protect or manage ecosystems, biodiversity, and environmental services

Communication To foster dialogue between the scientific community, policy makers, and society

To contribute toward the advancement of the health, productivity, and welfare of
the global environment

Environmental Impact

To develop empathetic relationships with the natural world and stimulate
inspiration, awe, and wonder

Relationship Building

To participate in studies of ecological processes that play out at time scales
spanning decades to centuries, provide a context to evaluate the nature and pace of
ecological change, interpret its effects, and forecast the range of future biological
responses to change

Long-Term Ecological
Research

To understand human drivers on natural systems, investigate the impacts of
ecosystems on humans, and explore human perceptions of and attitudes about the
natural world

Human Dimensions

Fig. 16.10 Provided list of LTER goals, mission, and intellectual commitments

(Fig. 16.11 ). While we expected Outreach , Communication , and Education to rank
highly, we were surprised by the high ranking of both (3) Relationship Building
(“To develop empathetic relationships with the natural world and stimulate inspira-
tion, awe, and wonder”) and (4) Human Dimensions (“To understand human drivers
on natural systems, investigate the impacts of ecosystems on humans, and explore
human perceptions of and attitudes about the natural world”). Both responses relate
to human-nature relationships and they represent either new or implicit commit-
ments of the LTER Network. However, eleven sites, nearly half, ranked these
responses

80 % relative value.
Alternatively, the LTER goals and mission statements least relevant to arts and
humanities inquiry, as identifi ed by respondents, are (1) Information and (2) Long-
Term Ecological Research . These are followed closely by (3) Legacies , (4) Synthesis ,
and (5) Understanding (Fig. 16.12 ). It is not clear if respondents see these responses
as unrelated to arts and humanities inquiry, or whether instead they think LTER sci-
ence already does these well, and therefore arts and humanities can (and should)
contribute in different ways. It is clear that respondents identify a strong relation-
ship between arts and humanities inquiry and several stated LTER goals, specifi -
cally Outreach , Communication , and Education , as well as to Human Dimensions

≥