The National Institute for Food and Agriculture's Projects in Climate Change and the ARS Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network: A Natural Partnership for Sustainability.

Long-term, cross-disciplinary research, extension and education are required to help ensure the sustainability of the agricultural systems of the USA. The National Institute for Food and Agriculture is addressing this need through several programs supporting large-scale, regional projects including Coordinated Agricultural Projects (CAP) and associated projects focused on climate change. Recently the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA has organized a network of Long Term Agro-Ecosystem Research sites situated to represent the major watersheds, ecoclimatic zones, and agricultural production regions in the US. There is a tremendous potential for collaboration among the USDA LTARs and the University Centered  CAPs and related projects to establish a long-term collaborative infrastructure capable of addressing region-wide, decadal processes that characterize complex agricultural systems. In this talk we discuss this potential and outline a path to ensuring the best and most impactful science and greatest efficiency of networks of projects at these unprecedented scales.