Ecology is an data-rich discipline covering vast temporal and spatial scales. Informatics is critical to managing, curating, and archiving these data for the future, making it accessible in a form that it can be used and interpreted accurately, and producing answers to questions from a community of researchers, policy makers, and educators. The LTER Network is actively involved in research and education directed at the application of information technology specifically to ecological information systems. Areas of active research include:

• Knowledge Networking
• Harvest Mediated Data Systems
• Metadata Exchange Standards
• Informatics Training
• Managing Sensor Data