Negotiating local versus global needs in the International Long Term Ecological Research Network’s socio-ecological research agenda

Abstract

Over the past decade, long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER) has been established to better integrate social science research and societal concerns into the goals and objectives of the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network, an established global network of long-term ecologicalmonitoring sites. TheHorizon 2020 eLTER project, currently underway, includes as one of its key objectives to evaluate the performance of LTSER platforms.This article reflects part of this evaluation: six LTSER platformswere assessed through site visits of the lead author, coupledwith reflections and insights of the platform managers, whoare also co-authors.We provide background for the mission and goals of LTSER, then assess the six international LTSERplatforms—Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER, USA; Braila Island LTSER, Romania; Cairngorms LTSER, UK;Doñana LTSER, Spain;OmoraEthnobotanical Park CapeHorn LTER,Chile; and Sierra Nevada LTSER, Spain. While based on a strong theoretical foundation in socio-ecological research, there has been a steep learning curve for scientists applying the concept in practice at LTSERplatforms.We show positive impacts that have been achieved, including contributions to policy, land-use planning, and natural resourcemanagement.Weexplain key aspects of LTSERplatforms that have proven challenging, includingmanagement, interdisciplinary integration, and stakeholder collaboration.Wecharacterize the tensions between top-down desires for network harmonization, bottom-up demands such as local policy relevance, and platform-level constraints such as time and budget. Finally,we discuss challenges, such as local context dominating the character of LTSERplatforms, and the fact that scientists are often disincentivized from engaging in transdisciplinary science. Overall, we conclude that while the internationalnetwork offers important advantages to itsmembers, a more productive balance between local and global goals could be achieved, and membersmay need to temper their expectations of what the network can and cannot offer at the local level.