Introduction to the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, Long-Term Ecological Research Project, Phase III

Abstract

The Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) is one of two urban Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) projects in the United States. It began its third funding cycle in 2011. Although the project continues key measurements that were started in 1997 at the inception of the research, the third phase is characterized by a new conceptual framework. Phase III of BES focuses on metropolitan Baltimore, Maryland, as a system poised for transition from a "sanitary city" -- characterized by engineered environmental solutions, management via discrete disciplines, and government control to a "sustainable city" -- which would be characterized by additional biological solutions, collaborative management, and polycentric and multi-level governance. In such a situation, the guiding research question becomes, "What are the effects of adaptive processes aimed at sustainability in the Baltimore socio-ecological system?" Adaptive processes are those social and biophysical features and actions which allow a complex system to adjust to changing internal and external drivers. The full proposal and other details of BES can be discovered on the project website: www.beslter.org