 n early 1992, the Canadian Global Change Program (CGCP) of the Royal Society of Canada established a Panel on Long-Term Ecological Research and Monitoring. The terms of reference of the Panel were:
1. To review the current state of long-term ecological research and monitoring in Canada and internationally.
2. To attempt to ensure compatibility, to the greatest extent possible, in terms of data acquisition, protocols and analysis among the various projects, either existent or planned, in order to facilitate comparison and integration of results both within Canada and internationally.
3. To identify any apparent gaps in the Canadian or international efforts that should be filled by Canadian researchers and initiate the preparation of appropriate research proposals to address these.
The Panel met first in August 1992, when it decided that there was a need for a short monograph: circumscribing the subject; providing a conceptual framework; describing current activities in this field in Canada, and, for comparison, in selected other countries; and recommending ways in which ecological research and monitoring could better meet long-term Canadian requirements. The Panel has given priority to the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) but there are many other reasons for undertaking ecological research and monitoring in Canada. These have not been overlooked.
In the course of its deliberations, the Panel uncovered a wide range of ecological research and monitoring activities across Canada; research of very high quality and involving significant numbers of internationally recognized specialists. But the total effort is fragmented into disciplines, environmental media (i.e. air, water, soil, biota, etc.) and specific issues. The need to maintain long-term ecological data banks has only recently been widely appreciated, and the institutional and financial support for such an effort is not yet secure. These points are taken up in this report which was written to provide funding agencies, research managers, policy makers, ecologists, graduate students and interested members of the general public with an overview of the benefits and needs of a successful Canadian LTERM program. The Panel hopes particularly to influence the young scientists who will have to live with the consequences of current LTERM planning.
The words appearing in the title of this report have the following meanings:
Long-term implies that an activity or program is intended to continue indefinitely, e.g. a weather observing network, even though funding is subject to periodic review;
Ecological refers to a community of organisms (including humans) interacting with one another, plus the environment in which they live and with which they interact. Ecosystems are often embedded within other ecosystems of larger scale;
Research is the endeavour to discover new knowledge or to reinterpret existing data, by critical study;
Monitoring is a system of continued observation, measurement and evaluation for defined purposes. Monitoring and research are generally iterative processes.
Hereafter, the acronym LTERM will be used for the expression long-term ecological research and monitoring.
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