Long-Term Soil Ecosystem Studies

What is the LTAE network?

The long-term Agronomic-Ecological research sites (LTAE) and expertise of custodian scientists represents a research network across the agro-ecological zones where cropping occurs in Victoria. The network currently includes locations at Horsham, Rutherglen and Walpeup (Figure 1). These sites recently underwent a rigorous review process that made several important recommendations for their future use with regard to researchers, stakeholders, and the public good value for the community (Crawford et al. 2003).

The mission of Rothamsted Research is to be recognised internationally as a primary source of first-class scientific research and new knowledge that addresses stakeholder requirements for innovative policies, products and practices to enhance the economic, environmental and societal value of agricultural land.

* The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network is a collaborative effort involving more than 1800 scientists and students investigating ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales. * The Network promotes synthesis and comparative research across sites and ecosystems and among other related national and international research programs. * The National Science Foundation established the LTER program in 1980 to support research on long-term ecological phenomena in the United States. * The 26 LTER Sites represent diverse ecosystems and research emphases * The LTER Network Office coordinates communication, network publications, and research-planning activities.

"A large-scale, international set of coordinated forestry experiments with few peers anywhere in the world."

International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) consists of networks of scientists engaged in long-term, site-based ecological and socioeconomic research. Our mission is to improve understanding of global ecosystems and inform solutions to current and future environmental problems.

The Harvard Forest hosts several long-term soil ecosystem studies.

The DIRT Experiment (Detritus Input and Removal Treatments) is a long-term study of controls on soil organic matter formation. Our goal is to assess how rates and sources of plant litter inputs control the accumulation and dynamics of organic matter and nutrients in forest soils over decadal time scales. Results from 11 years of field and laboratory studies demonstrate the relative importance of above- and belowground sources on soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics and show emerging long-term non-linear changes in soil carbon release and storage. ref: Harvard Forest website - http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p00/hf007/hf007.html