Human society in the 21st century has appealed to the scientific and management communities to strengthen the scientific bases bolstering man’s interaction with his environment. The necessity for a scientific foundation for dealing with the environment is borne of the fact that humanity has only one, natural life-supporting arena — planet Earth. This complex system, comprised of multiple ecological interactions, supplies the basic needs of man as well as of with the flora and faunasurrounding him. It is hoped that science will supply the knowledge for understanding the structure, function, and dynamics of the various ecologic systems in order that man and his surroundings will interact in a manner that preserves ecologic balance and dynamics.
The international community as a whole has recognized the priority of preserving — and, of course, preventing — the deterioration of ecologic systems. Countries have established ministries devoted to environmental issues, ratified international conventions, and developed national programs. Israel has signed and ratified several important agreements related to its LTER program, including .the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992), the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992),and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification(1994).
The broad geographical scales of environmental challenges, their complexities, and interdisciplinary nature require the development of approaches built around the concept of complexity. Dealing with environmental complexities has brought about novel organization in the areas of basic and applied research into life-supporting environmental processes. These new developments have led to establishing national and international frameworks for analytic and synthetic research into the structure, function and dynamics of complex ecological systems that span vast sales of space and time.
In the past few years, there were many attempts to formulate novel frameworks to deal with the complexities of man’s interaction with his environment. Researchers now recognize that the dynamics of ecological processes require longer term temporal studies than those commonly undertaken in other scientific disciplines. For this reason, present-day frameworks are built out of LTER Networks, namely networks of monitoring and research sites that are coordinated along the time and space scales of environmental processes, and Synthesis Centers, which provide an interdisciplinary work environment enabling the development of novel approaches for dealing with complex environmental topics. The outstanding international organizations taking on these tasks are the (1) International Long TermEcological Research Network, (2) the National Ecological Observatory Network(NEON), and (3) the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis(NCEAS).
These organizations seek to:
Analyze long-term ecological phenomena;
Compare various ecological systems within a more general systematic order;
Ensure a large ecologically diverse group of sites to support long-term research and management;
Encourage and advance collaboration and coordination between ecologists on the local, regional, and global scales;
Supply scientific data to researchers, management people, decision makers, and the public;
Develop tools for management and data synthesis;
Develop techniques for ecosystem management;
Establish national frameworks with coordinated, simultaneous, high-resolution research and monitoring of ecological and environmental variables under larger scales of time and space, which incorporate the various levels of organization in nature;
Study the ecological implications of climate change on land use and natural landscapes;
Advance ecological knowledge by seeking models and generalized principles;
Organize and consolidate data and concepts (aka synthesis) from the environmental sciences for researchers, natural resource authorities, and decision makers in the environmental field; and
Advance the research culture of synthesis and cooperation.
The above frameworks were set up because present research in the environmental sciences is built around short-term analyses of specific sites and deals with a limited number of ecologic effects. Many of the environmental changes expected to occur in the 21st century will be slow, long-term developments that occur over wide geographic expanses. However it must always be remembered that there are also environmental changes that may occur suddenly.
The novel trends in environmental studies and the international frameworks that were created are the basis for the Israel-LTER. The Israel program is working to strengthen and develop the national framework for interdisciplinary ecological research within the large scale dimensions of space and time. This structure will enable a determination of the form, operation and dynamics of ecological life-support systems and their connection to mankind through management and provision of professional services.
