RCN: An Ecosystem Research Cooperative for Northeastern North America

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This award will support further development of the Northeastern Ecosystem Research Cooperative (NERC), which is a grass-roots scientific organization of ecosystem researchers in the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada. The NERC is dedicated to integrative regional research and dissemination of knowledge to policy makers and the public. In existence for only 2.5 years, the NERC has developed into a vital and promising network with broad support within the scientific community. NERC researchers have established task groups that are investigating important environmental issues in the Northeast by identifying key research questions, developing databases, interpreting regional patterns, and producing proposals and publications. The NERC plans to increase the number of disciplines represented and the breadth of the scientific community that it serves. It will stimulate interactions among existing task groups, and initiate an outreach program that will help disseminate scientific information to the public and policy makers. A goal is to have the NERC reach its full potential as a unique organization dedicated to synthesizing site-specific information from throughout the region and actively communicating that knowledge. The NERC will have broad impacts on the ecosystem research community through its focus on regional-scale science and synthesis of information from many sites. The NERC will also impact the policy arena because it will make active dissemination of scientific knowledge a primary goal.