McMurdo Dry Valleys-Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER)

The McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER project is an interdisciplinary study of
the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in a cold desert region of
Antarctica. In 1992 this area was selected as a study site within the
National Science Foundation's Long-term Ecological Research (LTER)
Program. Details about the research can be reviewed through the
original 1992 research proposal to the National Science Foundation, or
the more recent 1998 proposal, resulting in funding for another 6
years. The McMurdo LTER project is one of 21 sites comprising the LTER
Network and is conducting long-term ecological research in a broad
array of ecosystems. Each site within the LTER Network shares a common
commitment to create a legacy of well-designed and well-documented
long-term field experiments and observations for use by future
generations to improve understanding of basic properties of ecosystems
as well as factors causing widespread changes in the world's
ecosystem. Sites are also required to synthesize research efforts,
such as response to natural and anthropogenic disturbances, and to
extrapolate from local scales to continental and global scales.

This information was obtained in part from the McMurdo Home page at
http://huey.colorado.edu/LTER/.

McMurdo Dry Valleys is part of the Long Term Ecological Research
Network, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, and
accessible at www.lternet.edu. Data are one of the most valuable
products of the LTER program. The goal of the Network is to provide
fast, effective, and open access to LTER data. Over 2000 ecological
datasets are part of a network-wide information system designed to
facilitate data exchange and integration to meet the needs of
ecological scientists.