U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Long Term Agroecosystem Research Overview

In pursuit of sustainable U.S. agriculture, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched the Long-Term Agroecosystem (LTAR) network. The LTAR network is composed of 18 locations distributed across the contiguous United States working together to address national and local agricultural priorities and advance the sustainable intensification of U.S. agriculture.

The LTAR network represents a range of major U.S. agroecosystems, including annual row cropping systems, grazinglands, and integrated systems representative of roughly 49 percent of cereal production, 30 percent of forage production, and 32 percent of livestock production in the United States. Furthermore, the LTAR sites span geographic and climatic gradients representing a variety of challenges and opportunities to U.S. agriculture.

The LTAR network uses experimentation and coordinated observations to develop a national roadmap for the sustainable intensification of agricultural production. While the LTAR network is a new network, experimentation and measurements began at some LTAR sites more than 100 years ago, while other locations started their research as recently as 19 years ago.

A primary goal of LTAR is to develop and to share science-based findings with producers and stakeholders. Tools, technologies, and management practices resulting from LTAR network science will be applied to the sustainable intensification of U.S. agriculture. Technical innovations, including new production techniques, genetics, and sensor infrastructure applied at the farm/ranch level can increase the capacity for adaptive management, reduce time and operational costs, and increase profits and the quality of life for producers.

For full list of LTAR sites, view the sites matrix at https://ltar.ars.usda.gov/sites/.

For more information about the LTAR network visit: https://ltar.ars.usda.gov

Filter by Program

Filter by author name

Filter by Funding Source

Filter by user-supplied tag

Filter by Ag Data Commons keyword

LTAR Research Sites

Data from the following LTAR sites are presented. They are related to topics such as agricultural sustainability, climate change, ecosystem services, and natural resource conservation at the watershed or landscape scale.

  • Archbold Biological Station (ABS), Venus, FL
  • Cook Agronomy Farm (CAF), Pullman, WA
  • Central Mississippi River Basin (CMRB), Columbia, MO
  • Central Plains Experimental Range (CPER), Cheyenne, WY; Fort Collins, CO; Nunn, CO
  • Eastern Corn Belt (ECB), Columbus, OH; West Lafayette, IN
  • Gulf Atlantic Coastal Range (GACP), Tifton, GA
  • Great Basin (GB), Boise, ID; Burns, OR
  • Jornada Experimental Range (JER), Las Cruces, NM
  • Kellogg Biological Station (KBS), southwestern MI
  • Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB), Oxford, MS; AR; LA; MO
  • Northern Plains (NP), Mandan, ND
  • Platte River-High Plains Aquifer (PRHP), Lincoln, NE
  • Southern Plains (SP), El Reno, OK
  • Texas Gulf (TG), Riesel, TX
  • Upper Chesapeake Bay (UCB), University Park, PA
  • Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB), Ames, IA; MN; WI
  • Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW), Tucson, AZ; Tombstone, AZ
  • Lower Chesapeake Bay (LCB), Beltsville, MD

    • Datasets

    9 datasets

    Data from: A field-scale sensor network data set for monitoring and modeling the spatial and temporal variation of soil moisture in a dryland agricultural field

      Automated in situ soil sensor network - the data set includes hourly and daily measurements of volumetric water content, soil temperature, and bulk electrical conductivity, collected at 42 monitoring locations and 5 depths (30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 cm) across Cook Agronomy Farm. Data collection was initiated in April 2007 and is ongoing.

      US Department of Agriculture Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) site 2198 data, Cook Farm Field, Whitman County, Washington

      NAL Geospatial Catalog
        This dataset contains air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, solar radiation, wind speed, soil temperature, and soil moisture data from the Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) site 2198, "Cook Farm Field D," located in Whitman County, Washington. The dataset links to a National Resources Conservation Service data request form, from which available data can be queried. The data collection site is at an elevation of 2727 feet; data has been continuously collected there since 2013-07-24.

        Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network regions, 2018 version

          The Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network, consisting of 18+ research locations, is conducting research on the sustainable intensification of agroecosystems. To enable coordinated network level research, a spatial framework is required to facilitate analysis. This dataset contains a geodatabase of three new maps describing regional boundaries for the LTAR Network titled "Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network regions, 2018 version.”