NSF Eyes Biodiversity Monitoring Network

To most people, an observatory is a place for astronomers to probe the far reaches of the universe. But some life scientists think the concept might also help unlock secrets in their own backyards. In what could turn into the most ambitious effort yet to systematically study Earth's ecosystems, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has begun planning what may become a global system of biodiversity observatories. The idea appears to be on a fast track at NSF as one of several environmental initiatives promoted by new director Rita Colwell (see p. 1944).

The observatories program would build on a spate of NSF-funded activity in recent years to study biodiversity and ecological processes. NSF already funds 21 Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites that monitor ecosystems ranging from Antarctic dry valleys to New England forests (Science, 15 October 1993, p. 334). Three years ago it created a National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California, to support projects that attempt to glean insights from existing data collected across LTER sites and any number of field and marine research stations (Science, 17 January 1997, p. 3 1 0). More recently, Arctic researchers funded by NSF proposed pooling data from a network of circumpolar studies. And this fall the agency is preparing a competition to support microbial research at a half-dozen or so existing outposts.

The observatories idea is likely to incorporate elements of all those programs-although planners have not yet hammered out any details, including the definition, number, and locations of the observatories. The program's budget is also unknown, although researchers and NSF officials hope that some work can begin within 2 years. Despite such gaps, organizers have at least outlined the project's philosophical underpinnings: to take the broadest possible look at how organisms interact and evolve in a range of ecosystems. "We're trying to get away from the stamp-album approach, in which scientists go to one site and take a snapshot of conditions at that time for a particular organism," explains Doug Siegel-Causey, NSFs program manager for biotic surveys and inventories, who will manage the initiative. "But it's hard to take a picture of a dynamic process."

NSF took the first step in that direction earlier this month when it convened 15 experts. The group endorsed the idea of such observatories, agreeing that it is long overdue, says meeting chair Leonard Kristtalka, director of the University of Kansas Biodiversity Research Center. "Historically, the systematists and the ecologists have gone their separate ways, and biology has been the worse for it," he says. "These two approaches need to be brought together if we hope to understand biodiversity over time."

One idea likely to receive scrutiny is for a center to support any number of sites in what NSF officials describe as a hub-and-spokes arrangement. Whether it's a physical entity or a virtual presence, the center could serve as both online database and administrative support for field researchers. Participants also envision establishing the observatories at some combination of existing field and marine stations and new sites. A second workshop this fall will prepare recommendations for NSF, says Siegel-Causey.

Meanwhile, a smaller NSF initiative is nearing the starting gate. That's a plan to spend $2.5 million in 1999 to set up microbial observatories at half a dozen existing field stations, with the intention to double or triple that number in 2000. The money would fund research that extends existing studies ranging from identifying new species and sequencing DNA to measuring nitrogen fixation and other biogeochemical processes. "For far too long, microorganisms have been a black box," says Colwell. "But it turns out that they play a fundamental role in everything."

The two initiatives would dovetail nicely, says Siegel-Causey: "I could imagine one station having adjacent plots of land labeled microbial and biodiversity observatories." But he says the biodiversity observatories initiative, once unveiled could well be a far more ambitious project than the microbial stations: "We're thinking an order of magnitude larger." Not quite astronomical proportions, maybe, but a big step for environmental researchers and taxonomists. -JEFFREY MERVIS