Jornada-Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER)

The Jornada Experimental Range is a designated Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Reserve, which allows comparative studies at other MAB Reserves in the Chihuahuan Desert at Big Bend National Park (Texas) and the Mapimi Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. In addition, we believe that studies at the Jornada LTER program can be used to infer the causes and consequences of desertification worldwide. Field research at the Jornada LTER is conducted in various habitat types found within New Mexico State University's Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center (25,900 ha) and the adjacent lands of the USDA Jornada Experimental Range (78,266 ha).

These lands, which form the Jornada del Muerto Basin in southern New Mexico, are found at the northern end of the Chihuahuan desert (MAP- 60Kb), which extends from southcentral New Mexico, USA to the state of Zacatecas, Mexico, comprising 36% of North American Desert land (MacMahon and Wagner l985). This information was obtained in part from the Jornada LTER home page at "jornada-www.nmsu.edu/". Jornada is part of the Long Term Ecological Research Network, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, and accessible at www.lternet.edu.

Data are one of the most valuable products of the LTER program. The goal of the Network is to provide fast, effective, and open access to LTER data. Over 2000 ecological datasets are part of a network-wide information system designed to facilitate data exchange and integration to meet the needs of ecological scientists.