Long Term Ecological Research Network

The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network operated by the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) consists of a group of over 1800 scientists and students studying ecological processes over extended temporal and spatial scales. The Network represents the collection of individual research sites and the community of scientists that make up the US NSF LTER initiative. The Network is the operational entity where researchers at each site conduct long-term ecological research, share data, and collaborate on cross-site and synthesis projects. The Network is coordinated by a central office.

Twenty-eight LTER sites cover a diverse set of ecosystems. It is part of the International Long Term Ecological Research Network (ILTER). The US NSF LTER Program was established in 1980 to support long-term ecological research at selected sites across the US, chosen to represent major ecosystem types, and is funded by the US National Science Foundation. Data from LTER sites is publicly available in the Environmental Data Initiative repository and findable through DataONE search.