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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

    9 datasets

    Data from: USDA ARS Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory (NGPRL) legacy livestock production (1916-2016) under various rangeland managements with stocking rate and seeded crested wheatgrass

      Established in 1912, the Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory (NGPRL) is a USDA Agricultural Research Service facility located in Mandan, Morton County, North Dakota. In 1916, NGPRL scientists established a long-term rangeland management research project focusing on developing the most appropriate stocking rates for rangelands in the region. The research project ran for 100 years and included pasture 62, a heavily stocked pasture, and 66, a moderately stocked pasture for the entire time. Also, in 1931, pasture 37 was converted from smooth bromegrass to crested wheatgrass, which was both lightly and moderately stocked. The legacy livestock production data from these pastures include 100 years (1916-2016) of livestock production data from pastures 62 and 66 and 84 years (1932-2016) from pasture 37.

      Data from: Conservation Practices Induce Tradeoffs in Soil Function: Observations from the Northern Great Plains

        Near-surface (0-5 cm) measurements of soil physical, chemical, and biological properties over a 3-yr period for contrasting long-term experimental treatments at the USDA-ARS Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory were conducted to quantify soil property responses to crop diversity/intensity, cover crops, and livestock integration under controlled experimental conditions, and land use (dryland cropping, native grassland, untilled pasture) on working farms and ranches, all on a common soil type in southcentral North Dakota, USA.

        Sample of Mandan, North Dakota Aerial Image Dataset

          Originally produced by the Farm Security Administration, these are georeferenced aerial images from Morton County, North Dakota. Historic print images housed at the Mandan, North Dakota ARS Long-Term Agricultural Research facility were digitized, georeferenced, and processed for use in both professional and consumer level GIS applications, or in photo-editing applications. The original images were produced by the Farm Security Administration to monitor government compliance for farm land agreements. Current applications include assessing land use change over time with regard to erosion, land cover, and natural and man-made structures. Not for use in high precision applications.

          NGPRL Meteorological Towers

          NAL Geospatial Catalog
            This dataset is part of the common observation in the centralized repository for public access, also known as the Common Observatory Repository (CORe), of the USDA ARS Long-Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) network.

            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.”