Multidisciplinary Collaborations in Toxicology and Paleo-ecology: Equal Means to Different Ends

This chapter examines two programs: the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network and the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). The LTER is a distributed network of field sites established in 1980 to conduct long-term studies in a variety of habitats. NEON is a proposed continental scale ecological observatory network whose goal is to use new instruments and technologies to enable ecology to mature into a predictive big science capable of forecasting ecological events of importance to society. It also reviews the literature on big science, particularly the multiple types of big science and the role of technology in moving a field to big science. Environmental changes occurring in the present can be difficult or impossible to identify without an historical baseline. In recognition of this, the National Science Foundation (NSF) created the LTER to understand ecological patterns and processes in a variety of ecosystems over long periods of time.