From cows to carbon to curation: The biography of the Shortgrass Steppe LTER

Background/Question/Methods

The biography of a long-term, interdisciplinary project can inform current and future generations about how scientists integrate long-term monitoring, experimental design, modeling, and data synthesis to support innovative research and education.  A long-term place-based research effort, such as the Shortgrass Steppe Long-Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) project, also affords access to a deeper knowledgebase on how scientists lead interdisciplinary teams and cultivate collaborations.  It can also provide rich contextual metadata that can facilitate data discovery and re-use.  Unfortunately, this knowledge is often lost and those lessons must be re-learned by succeeding generations of researchers. After thirty years of continuous interdisciplinary research on the shortgrass steppe of eastern Colorado, the SGS-LTER is being decommissioned and will no longer be funded after 2014.  This important local knowledge appears in no textbooks or journal articles. We gathered and analyzed the experiences and tactical know-how of SGS-LTER scientists, staff, and alumni, by compiling their personal reflections of their work in a narrative entitled The biography of the Shortgrass Steppe LTER.

Results/Conclusions

Stories arising from over three decades of interdisciplinary research on the shortgrass steppe contributed a rich legacy of world renowned theory in grassland ecology, ecosystem modeling, natural resource management, and K-12 education and outreach. We conducted over twenty interviews with scientists and research support staff, and presented themes and artifacts that related to the evolution of research at the site and within the LTER Network.  The interviews elicited diverse views and accounts of career building within the SGS in particular, and the LTER Network in general. This provided insight on science leadership and institutional context, and approaches to conducting collaborative research over the long term.  The resulting stories captured underlying assumptions about the evolving conceptual models of the ecosystem, revealed fortuitous incidents that helped shape new directions in the scientific process, and explained changes in methodologies over time.  Emerging themes from these stories about the SGS-LTER project revealed deep roots in the International Biome Program, a critical role during the establishment of the Network, and abundant collaborations across the LTER community. They also revealed that over the course of 30-plus years, SGS has produced many valuable research findings, pioneered education and outreach programs, and formed deep connections with local stakeholders.   Identified themes were woven into a rich tapestry of narratives, including insights about conducting science over the long term as research foci changed and the LTER Network expanded.