How does well-curated data aid long-term socioecological research?

The availability of well-curated data provided by the LTER network facilitates research opportunities that may otherwise be unavailable to investigators. My research has capitalized on data from the CAP LTER program to study the links between people and biodiversity in residential yards. However, working on interdisciplinary research questions has also highlighted challenges that occur when linking social and ecological data. Understanding the disciplinary perspectives and processes that underlie the data is critical to working in socioecological systems. Overall data provided by the LTER network has lowered the barriers to overcoming these challenges and expanded the scope of my graduate research.