Linking Ltar, LTER, and NEON: The Jornada Example.

The USDA ARS Research Unit based at the Jornada Experimental Range outside of Las Cruces, NM, is a member of the USDA's Long Term Agricultural Research (LTAR) Network, the National Science Foundation's Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, and the National Ecological Observation Network (NEON).  Each of these networks has fundamental sentinel units of observation that include measurements of soil-based indicators.   For NEON, the ~400 data products that will result from its sampling design were specifically chosen to understand impacts of climate change, land use, and invasive species in our environment.    For LTER, now in its 4^th decade, core measurements since its inception in the early 1980s have resulted in long term data sets, including soil-based indicators that are utilized to document environmental change and variability.  For LTAR, just now implementing its research strategy, there exists a real opportunity for the broader soil science community to collaborate with this network.  Participation in the early phases of the LTAR network could shape network-wide experimentation, and include soil-based responses to land management practices.  For example, an early effort of the LTAR network is establishment of a network-wide wind erosion monitoring protocol to systematically monitor wind erosion in agricultural and rangeland environments across the US.  This protocol could be adopted and synergistically applied elsewhere.  For the Jornada, direct involvement in these networks is a critical tactic to maintain our infrastructure and capacities as a federal research laboratory, and maximize our scientific impacts.