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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

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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

    7 datasets

    Data from: Threshold Behavior of Catchments with Duplex Hillslope Soils Feeding Soil Pipe Networks

      This dataset corresponds with two published studies conducted on loess covered catchments in northern Mississippi, USA within the Goodwin Creek Experimental Watershed that contain extensive networks of soil pipes and corresponding collapse features. These loess soils contain fragipan layers that were found to perch water, thereby initiating the piping processes. The dataset contains data from two papers, specifically these include: (i) the spatial distribution of soil pipe collapses and their size measurements from the Wilson et al. (2015) paper, and (ii) hydrologic measurements of perched water tables on hillslopes, water levels of selected soil pipe locations, and precipitation from the Wilson et al. (2017) paper.

      Ameriflux data: Goodwin Creek, Mississippi, 1980-2014

      NAL Geospatial Catalog
        This dataset links to a data download from the Daymet website. Data parameters are Latitude: 34.2547 Longitude: -89.8735 X & Y on Lambert Conformal Conic: 897941.75 -822030.73; Tile: 11206; Elevation: 91 meters; Years: 1980-2014. Archived and distributed through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC), the Daymet dataset for Goodwin Creek provides gridded estimates of daily weather parameters for North America, including daily continuous surfaces of minimum and maximum temperature, precipitation occurrence and amount, humidity, shortwave radiation, snow water equivalent, and day length.

        US Department of Agriculture Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) site 2024 data, Goodwin Creek Pasture, Panola County, Mississippi

        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 2024, "Goodwin Ck Pasture," located in Panola County, Mississippi. 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 320 feet; data has been continuously collected there since 1999-01-27.

          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.”