The Critical Role of Long-Term Environmental Studies in Informing Policy | Hughes et al. 2017
The CDR-LTER project at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve is an example of a long-term biodiversity-productivity experiment providing wide-ranging data. Credit: CDR-LTER; CC BY-SA 4.0
Long-term ecological and environmental studies (LTEES) play a crucial role in informing environmental policy decisions. The analysis by Hughes et al. (2017) highlights the disproportionate representation and value placed on LTEES in reports written to guide policy making compared to their representation in the general scientific literature. The disproportionate importance of LTEES in policy-informing reports stems from the unique insights these studies can provide that are unattainable from short-term observations. LTEES can capture processes operating over extended time frames, revealing rare events, shifting baselines, and ecological surprises that may be missed in shorter-duration studies. As the need to understand and address environmental challenges like climate change becomes increasingly urgent, the preservation and expansion of LTEES are vital for informing effective strategies and policies based on robust, long-term data and insights.
Hughes et al.’s analysis reveals two key insights:
First, the representation of LTEES in scientific journals increases with the impact factor of those journals. Higher-impact journals tend to publish a greater proportion of LTEES compared to lower-impact journals.
Second, LTEES were represented more frequently in reports written by the National Research Council (NRC), a highly influential source for scientific synthesis informing U.S. environmental policy. A survey of NRC report authors revealed a strong preference for citing LTEES, recognizing their unique contribution to the recommendations in their reports and the importance of study duration as a criterion for citation. For example, 25% of the studies cited in NRC reports had durations 5 to over 40 years longer than the equivalent percentile of studies in the scientific literature.
Despite the recognized value of LTEES by the scientific community and policymakers, the study found a mismatch between the demand for LTEES and their availability in the scientific literature. This paucity of LTEES comes at a significant cost to both scientific advancement and the capacity of science to inform policymakers effectively. To address this gap, Hughes et. al suggest that funding sources should reverse the declining allocations to long-term ecological studies. Increasing support for LTEES could yield significant benefits for both evidence-based policymaking and scientific progress in the realm of environmental issues.