In 1980, the National Science Foundation founded the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network to provide a long-term view of ecosystem science. Today, research programs at LTER sites examine long-term and large-scale phenomena across a wide range of ecosystems: arctic, grasslands, forests, estuaries, lakes, wetlands, urban areas and coastal oceans. Each LTER site has a significant focus on data management - both for their local scientists and to produce data packages for synthesis or other uses. Hence, LTER sites also serve the wider scientific community by making 40 years of sustained observations publicly available through the repository of the Environmental Data Initiative (https://portal.edirepository.org). 

Do you work with or plan to work with LTER data? Do you know what data are available, or how to access them? In this special session, we have assembled a panel of LTER data experts to introduce basic features of data management in the Network, demonstrate how ecologists can find and access LTER data, and to answer questions you may have. Short presentations will focus on the breadth of these research collections, plus mechanisms for discovery, access and use. The bulk of the time will be for questions to the panel, and for extended dialog on specific data issues, e.g., practices and policies for archiving and citing data, and handling of complex long-term observations.