Social concerns with the consequences of climatic change require evidence of its effects on ecological systems on land and at sea. In both habitats humans intervene, e.g., deforestation, pollution of lakes, and marine harvesting. In addition, "natural" fluctuations driven by internal ecological processes also occur. Therefore, there is a definite need to monitor the long-term variability of populations, communities and ecosystem, and especially to understand the underlying processes so as to separate the different causal factors. Marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecologists are actively engaged in analysis and planning of long-term data sets. However, ecological interpretations of these data sets differ in detail, even though researchers have common questions about ecological concepts. Dr. Steele will hold a month-long summer school in 1992 at Cornell University that will bring together practitioners for the different disciplines to exchange information about data sets, methods of analysis and theoretical explanations. The steering committee will invite 15-20 students at the graduate or post-doctoral levels, and approximately 10 lecturers. This workshop follows a successful 1991 summer school at Cornell University.
