TY - JOUR
T1 - Science and society
T2 - The role of long-term studies in environmental stewardship
AU - Driscoll, Charles T.
AU - Lambert, Kathleen F.
AU - Stuart Chapin, F.
AU - Nowak, David J.
AU - Spies, Thomas A.
AU - Swanson, Frederick J.
AU - Kittredge, David B.
AU - Hart, Clarisse M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The effort and contributions of KFL were generously supported by the Bullard Fellowship program of Harvard University’s Harvard Forest and by a grant from Highstead. This is a contribution of the Long Term Ecological Research Network, which is supported by the US National Science Foundation and by the US Forest Service. We appreciate the efforts of David R. Foster in shepherding this series of articles.
Funding Information:
Developing and applying meaningful metrics of impact is a common challenge. Under the auspices of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Institutes of Health and the NSF are developing metrics of impacts for science, called STAR METRICS (Science and Technology for America’s Reinvestment: Measuring the Effects of Research on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Science; Lane and Bertuzzi 2011). Several metrics have been proposed to measure the usefulness of scientific knowledge, many of which are applied in these case studies (e.g., download or hit rates, media coverage, citations in federal or state regulations). But in the area of broader impacts or social outcomes, such as those in health, safety, and the environment, recommendations are under development by an interagency working group. Impact metrics for science are an important gap in understanding that should be remedied by the STAR METRICS program and other science-policy research efforts.
PY - 2012/4
Y1 - 2012/4
N2 - Long-term research should play a crucial role in addressing grand challenges in environmental stewardship. We examine the efforts of five Long Term Ecological Research Network sites to enhance policy, management, and conservation decisions for forest ecosystems. In these case studies, we explore the approaches used to inform policy on atmospheric deposition, public land management, land conservation, and urban forestry, including decisionmaker engagement and integration of local knowledge, application of models to analyze the potential consequences of policy and management decisions, and adaptive management to generate new knowledge and incorporate it into decisionmaking. Efforts to enhance the role of long-term research in informing major environmental challenges would benefit from the development of metrics to evaluate impact; stronger partnerships among research sites, professional societies, decisionmakers, and journalists; and greater investment in efforts to develop, test, and expand practice-based experiments at the interface of science and society.
AB - Long-term research should play a crucial role in addressing grand challenges in environmental stewardship. We examine the efforts of five Long Term Ecological Research Network sites to enhance policy, management, and conservation decisions for forest ecosystems. In these case studies, we explore the approaches used to inform policy on atmospheric deposition, public land management, land conservation, and urban forestry, including decisionmaker engagement and integration of local knowledge, application of models to analyze the potential consequences of policy and management decisions, and adaptive management to generate new knowledge and incorporate it into decisionmaking. Efforts to enhance the role of long-term research in informing major environmental challenges would benefit from the development of metrics to evaluate impact; stronger partnerships among research sites, professional societies, decisionmakers, and journalists; and greater investment in efforts to develop, test, and expand practice-based experiments at the interface of science and society.
KW - Long Term Ecological Research Network
KW - boundary spanning
KW - environmental policy and management
KW - science communication
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84860204593&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84860204593&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1525/bio.2012.62.4.7
DO - 10.1525/bio.2012.62.4.7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84860204593
SN - 0006-3568
VL - 62
SP - 354
EP - 366
JO - BioScience
JF - BioScience
IS - 4
ER -