ABSTRACT
Ecosystem responses to human disturbance, however, can be properly understood only by studying them for periods of several decades or longer. Short-term studies, of several months or years, are indispensable in elucidating underlying processes and mechanisms, but they cannot reveal the eventual, final response. An long-term ecological sites (LTES), as the phrase is used, is a designated area of land maintained for long durations to measure eventual responses to human and other related stresses. LTES have more than one “treatment,” each reflecting a distinct ecosystem or land use, thus allowing comparisons among ecosystems as well as measuring of changes over time. The fundamental purpose of an LTES is to monitor and understand the persistence of one or more ecosystems in delivering expected services. LTES are almost universally prized and revered among ecologists, yet many face abandonment, threatened by accumulating costs and perceived obsolescence.
