2022 LTER All Scientists' Meeting

Photography is a powerful tool for communicating science. A compelling photograph can convey the drama of fieldwork or the nuance of an experimental treatment. Yet too often communicators—whether researchers themselves or a third party—are left with photos that don’t quite capture the content of the story. In this workshop, we teach participants to think of photography first as a science storytelling tool. We teach participants to strategically plan photos useful to communication efforts down the road. We cover photography basics applicable to any camera, as well as basic photo editing skills. Attendees will then participate in a short photo shoot, where they apply the skills they learned in the workshop and receive feedback on their photos.

During this workshop we will demonstrate how ArcGIS Story Maps can be used to communicate LTER science and provide hands-on training on their use. ArcGIS story maps provide a way to easily develop web apps that integrate diverse sources of data and web content into an easily relatable story. Content can include narrative text, interactive maps, videos and sounds. They can include features like interactive legends, three dimensional figures, user submitted content and reference points for driving directions to remote field sites.
We will demonstrate a number of story maps that were developed through the Luquillo LTER including a virtual site visit developed for our virtual midterm review, and a story map about Hurricane Maria and its impact on the island of Puerto Rico. During a hands-on demonstration we will work with members of the LTER community to use their own GIS data and multimedia content to create compelling stories for both scientific communities and the general public.
An introduction will be given by Brian Baldwin, Senior Solution Engineer – Education, Esri
View the Luquillo LTER Virtual Site Visit StoryMap here

As Part 1 of the workshop track “Integrating Arts & Humanities,” this session introduces recent efforts at VCR to expand arts and humanities integration with site science and then invites open discussion from participants about other forms of environmental science-arts-humanities (eSAH) integration. Organized on the Conservatory format of eSAH at the VCR, this workshop opens by listening to data sonifications and related ecoacoustic compositions. It then describes how music-based methods have catalyzed new science research at the VCR, as well as complementary projects on coastal change from ethics, history, and literature. The collective work has led to new forms of public engagement and institutional collaboration. Critical reflection on challenges of integrative research at the VCR then sets the stage for open discussion on experiences, models, methods, and objectives for eSAH work across the LTER network.

Workshop materials are embedded in this website, and we've created a separate repository for example apps in R scripts so that they are easier to run for you! If you're not a GitHub user, you can download all the example apps by clicking here.

Abstract: Shiny applications are a powerful way to let users explore scientific data in a curated environment. Shiny is a flexible platform that allows users to create both intricate apps and simple interfaces for sharing data with collaborators. After this workshop, attendees will be able to (1) define the fundamental structure of a Shiny app, (2) implement different user interface elements, (3) write and format useful labels and headers, and (4) learn to partition Shiny app components to create clean, concise, and easy-to-navigate apps. Workshop participants follow a guided coding session to create a demo shiny app, with an emphasis on creating an app to share and interact with scientific data. We will leverage pre-written “example apps” to facilitate attendees writing their own apps. Please bring a laptop computer. There will also be time set aside throughout the workshop to discuss issues and share best practices so whether you’re a veteran Shiny user or have neer heard of it, we welcome your participation.

This workshop is for early career researchers, PIs, and those involved in education, outreach, and DEI who seek to develop an evidence-based strategy for stakeholder engagement and science communication. Building on his just-published book on Strategic Science Communication, John Besley (Hubbard Brook) will help participants identify audience-specific behavioral goals for communicating their LTER work and think through communication objectives that will help them achieve those goals through carefully selected tactics. Sarah Garlick (Hubbard Brook) and Corinn Rutkoski (Kellogg Biological Station) will share their experiences identifying goals and building out evidence-based science communication strategies in their respective projects. Participants will have an opportunity to design their own strategy, with guidance on differentiating goals from objectives and tactics, as well as aiming for specificity in their communication strategy.

Works created by eco-acoustician Matthew Burtner (http://matthewburtner.com) in collaboration with two LTER sites will be presented: 1) BLE and the public school district in Kaktovik, AK and 2) VCR through the University of Virginia’s Coastal Futures Conservatory (CFC). Ambient soundscape recordings, data sonifications, and musical compositions will be looped throughout the meeting, allowing ASM attendees to drop in and experience the sounds of these diverse and unique ecosystems at their leisure throughout the week. The track list and a brief description in the conference program will allow listeners to orient themselves to what they are hearing and will give credit to the researchers, composers, and musicians involved.

On Wednesday evening, Burtner and investigators from some of the sites he has worked with, will provide a short presentation and discussion, in addition to making the soundscapes available.

Scientific illustrations are a great way to communicate complicated, multidimensional concepts in a single eye-catching figure. Yet many researchers don’t know where to start drafting a conceptual figure–and resort to familiar, but limited, tools like Powerpoint. In this interactive workshop, we cover the basics of designing vector graphics with Affinity—a low cost, fully functional graphic design software. The workshop will begin with an introduction to figure making and a tour of basic Affinity functions. Then, participants will rework a default ggplot output into a publication worthy figure. - Figure: Download here!

Sharing LTER research progress and initiatives beyond the ecological community is critical. It’s important to connect with the Next Gen of potential ecologists. Specifically, those aged 14-20 y.o., as well as the community at large, who spend more getting their information from social media platforms! So, how best to reach them?
One answer is to use the social media platforms people are already accessing. Co-opting those platforms, connecting them, cross-post photos, videos, and compelling information, and becoming “Eco-Influencers”.
This workshop will bring experts on the following topics – to learn how to:
Utilize a variety of social media platforms – connecting them to form an easy platform of information
Better utilize imagery, both video and photographs, in information delivery
Clearly develop a compelling post attract audiences
Present content on a regular basis and learn how often content needs to be generated to satisfy our audience

Drawing from the previous two workshops on environmental arts-humanities-science practice and research, this work session will focus on LTER-wide collaboration, coordination, and future thinking. Together we will: (a) develop shared priorities for LTER environmental arts-humanities-science programs, (b) discuss a framework for network-wide coordination, (b) identify objectives for collaborative research, and (c) begin to create a unified strategy for network-wide arts and humanities data management. Our hope is to create a working group to collaborate on shared inquiry and evaluation across sites into the future, with the long-term intention of situating the LTER network as a leader in environmental arts-humanities-science collaboration and scholarship.