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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

    11 datasets

    Long-Term Agricultural Research (LTAR) network - Meteorological Station - Upper Mississippi River Basin - St. Paul

      The United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Soil and Water Management Research Unit established a meteorological data collection system at the Rosemount Research and Outreach Center in 2003. In 2015 the site became part of the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network. The site is located in Dakota County Minnesota in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) watershed. Data are recorded at 15-minute intervals

      Swan Lake Research Farm Weather Station LTAR UMRB-Morris Minnesota

        The United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) North Central Soil Conservation Research Laboratory - Soil Management Unit established a weather data collection system at the Swan Lake Research Farm in 1997. Weather data collected include wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, relative humidity, air temperature, soil temperatures, soil heat flux, solar radiation, photosynthetic active radiation, and precipitation. In 2015 the site became part of the Long Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) project. The Swan Lake Research Farm is located in Stevens County Minnesota, in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) watershed.

        US Department of Agriculture Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) Site 2031 data, Ames, Iowa

        NAL Geospatial Catalog
          This dataset contains air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, solar radiation, wind speed, soil temperature, and soil moisture data from the Ames Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) site 2031 in Boone County, Iowa. 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 1073 feet; data has been continuously collected there since 2001-09-23.

          LTAR Upper Mississippi River Basin - Morris - Swan Lake Research Farm Phenocam

          NAL Geospatial Catalog
            The PhenoCam network is collecting color and near infrared images year-round using cameras in fixed positions on agricultural lands including a site located on the Swan Lake Research Farm. The network effort was initiated in 2015 at this long-term, plot-scale research site. The camera at the research farm on focused a plot-scale, replicated research study that was established in 1997 to assess the long-term impacts of various tillage management options on soil organic carbon