ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an account of on-going changes in the data practices in ecology. Though ecological methods include experimentation and manipulation, we focus here on field observations. Ecology is a data-rich research domain with a long history of collaboration and interdisciplinarity. Indeed, many ecological research activities are observationally oriented and rely on the analysis and integration of many kinds of disciplinary data. The Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network offers a rich and unique setting for ethnographic inquiry by providing multiple viewpoints not only on scientific practices that mobilize data uses and reuses but also on collaboration configurations. Development of the LTER was informed by programs that preceded it such as the International Geophysical Year (IGY) and the International Biological Program (IBP). 'Network science' refers to an organizational arrangement that enlarges the context of member sites through association with other sites tied together conceptually by a set of overarching scientific themes.
