special feature

Call for Proposals: Cross Journal Special Feature on “Large Scale, Open Data, and a Big Tent: Leveraging collaboration, transparency, and inclusion to advance macrosystems biology”

Functional Ecology, Journal of Animal Ecology, Journal of Ecology, Methods in Ecology and Evolution and People and Nature are seeking proposals for a cross-journal Special Feature on “Large Scale, Open Data, and a Big Tent: Leveraging collaboration, transparency, and inclusion to advance macrosystems biology” 

Edited by: Daniel C Allen, Alejandro Cueva, Xiaonan Tai, Matt Heard, Kai Zhu and Brenden McNeil. 

The field of macrosystems biology studies ecological phenomena that occur and interact within nested spatial scales: plot, local, landscape, regional, continental, and global. Research in this field is critical in our era of global change, as actionable science at these spatial scales is needed to inform environmental policy and management and address the world’s most pressing environmental problems, such as habitat destruction and biodiversity loss.  

Over the past decade there has been a substantial investment of funds into macrosystems biology research and (cyber-)infrastructure, with projects like the Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological Research (eLTER) network, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) in the USA, the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), Australia’s Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), the Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN), and others. While the increasing reach of such projects (paired with increasing collaboration across countries) highlights the growing importance and impact of macrosystems biology in the field of ecology, conducting ecological science at large spatial scales to addresses these problems presents many challenges. These challenges include developing effective collaborative research teams across disparate locations, language barriers, interoperability among institutions, advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in team science; using and creating FAIR data (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable), and following the CARE principles (collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility, ethics) when working with Indigenous data. 

Photograph collage of sensor instrumentation at the US National Ecological Observatory Network terrestrial and aquatic field sites. (Credit: National Ecological Observatory Network / Battelle)

In this special feature, we aim to publish a series of articles that address these challenges, producing novel research and approaches that advance the field of macrosystems biology.  

We particularly welcome contributions which: 

1) Advance the field of macrosystems biology by examining how ecological phenomena interact across multiple spatial and temporal scales, 

2) Demonstrate the importance of international collaboration in large scale ecological research,  

3) Use data collected by and/or leverage data produced by research infrastructure projects like eLTER, NEON, SAEON, CERN, TERN, FluxNet, ForestGEO, CZOnet, LTERnet, or similar networks. 

All contributions should be in scope for the Special Feature as outlined here, as well as the journals listed below: 

Please submit article proposals via this form by the 29th March 2024 

Proposals will be assessed by the editors and, if the proposed articles are in scope for the journal suggested and a good fit for the Special Feature, they will be invited for submission. Submitted papers will go through the same peer review process as any submission to the journal.  

The deadline for article submission will be 27th September 2024 

For further information, please contact admin@functionalecology.org 

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