Agriculture & Environment
Forestry & Ecology research: networks, data, standards and funders
Forestry and ecology research is organised around two overlapping communities. Forest science follows the nine research divisions of IUFRO, the International Union of Forest Research Organizations: silviculture; physiology and genetics; forest operations; forest assessment, modelling and management; forest products; social aspects of forests; forest health; forest environment; and forest policy and economics. IUFRO has over 630 member organizations in more than 100 countries. Ecology follows the Ecological Society of America, which runs 32 sections, from applied, statistical and theoretical ecology to restoration, invasion, soil, long-term studies and traditional ecological knowledge.
The infrastructure is largely public. The USDA Forest Service Research and Development organisation groups its work into ten topics, including Fire, Forest and Plant Health, Forest Products, and Inventory, Monitoring and Assessment, and runs Forest Inventory and Analysis, Experimental Forests and Ranges, and Urban Field Stations. NSF funds NEON, with 81 field sites operated by Battelle, and the US Long Term Ecological Research Network, set up in 1980 with 26 sites. Data move through repositories such as the Environmental Data Initiative, GBIF, Movebank and the ICOS carbon observation network in Europe. Internationally, the FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment compiles official national data from 194 countries and areas, and IPBES, established in 2012, produces assessments for governments.
Researchers settle a few things early: which plots, sensors or tracked animals the data come from and who owns them; whether records follow Darwin Core and ecological metadata conventions so they can be deposited and reused; which permits and animal-handling rules apply; and which journals, from Forest Science to the ESA family, fit the work. The specialised hubs below take up inventory, silviculture, genetics, fire, flux networks and policy.
New to the field? What is Forestry & Ecology? →
Reviewed 5 November 2026 by CASRAI Editorial Board
- IUFRO(read 5 November 2026)
- ESA sections(read 5 November 2026)
- ESA journals(read 5 November 2026)
- USDA Forest Service R&D(read 5 November 2026)
- NEON about(read 5 November 2026)
- Environmental Data Initiative(read 5 November 2026)
- GBIF (Wikipedia; official page returned 403)(read 5 November 2026)
- FAO FRA(read 5 November 2026)
- Darwin Core (TDWG)(read 5 November 2026)
- Movebank(read 5 November 2026)
- US LTER Network(read 5 November 2026)
- IPBES(read 5 November 2026)
- Global Nature Watch(read 5 November 2026)
- ICOS (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Society of American Foresters(read 5 November 2026)
- Forest Science (Oxford Academic)(read 5 November 2026)
- EcoEvoRxiv(read 5 November 2026)
- NSF BIO(read 5 November 2026)
Field at a glance
Journals
- ESA journals: Ecology, Ecological Applications, Ecological Monographs, Ecosphere
- The Ecological Society of America's journal family also includes Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment; Ecosphere is the open-access title.Website ↗
- Forest Science
- Journal of the Society of American Foresters, hosted on Oxford Academic; the page says it moves to a new publisher from 2025.Website ↗
Societies
- IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations)
- Vienna-based non-profit network of forest scientists with over 630 member organizations in more than 100 countries and nine research divisions.Website ↗
- Ecological Society of America sections
- Thirty-two sections listed, including Statistical Ecology, Ecological Restoration, Invasion Ecology, Long-Term Studies, Open Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- Society of American Foresters
- Professional body that publishes Forest Science and the Journal of Forestry, runs the Certified Forester programme and accredits academic forestry programmes.Website ↗
Funders and programmes
- USDA Forest Service Research and Development
- Ten research topics from Fire to Water, Air and Soil; programmes include FIA, Experimental Forests and Ranges, Urban Field Stations; Treesearch holds nearly 65,000 documents.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences
- Supports research on all forms of life at all scales, with core research, postdoctoral fellowship and infrastructure opportunities.Website ↗
- US Long Term Ecological Research Network
- Set up by NSF in 1980; the network page lists 26 sites and current NSF award funding.Website ↗
- IPBES
- Intergovernmental science-policy body set up in 2012 by 94 governments, with almost 150 member States; UNEP provides its secretariat services.Website ↗
Archives, facilities and data
- GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility)
- International aggregator of biodiversity data launched in 2001, served through web services; participants are nations and organisations.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network)
- NSF-funded observatory operated by Battelle with 81 field sites; the Biorepository has collected samples since 2012.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- Environmental Data Initiative repository
- Archives environmental data unchanged for long-term access, offers a REST API for publishing, and builds on 40+ years of LTER information management.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment
- Dates from 1948; FRA 2025 is based on official data from national correspondents in 194 countries and areas.Website ↗
- Global Forest Watch (now Global Nature Watch)
- World Resources Institute platform set up in 1997 that publishes tree cover loss, deforestation and fire alerts, and forest carbon flux maps.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System)
- European research infrastructure formed 2008, ERIC status 2015; 16 member states and almost 200 sites, 138 of 179 stations certified by end 2024.Website ↗
- Movebank
- Max Planck Institute hosted platform for animal tracking data; the page reports 10,241 studies and 12.0 billion locations as of October 2026.Website ↗ · Our guide →
Standards and formats
- Darwin Core
- TDWG standard ratified in 2009 for sharing taxon and occurrence data from observations, specimens and samples; 7 vocabularies.Website ↗ · Our guide →
Preprints and indexes
- EcoEvoRxiv
- Ecology and evolution preprint repository managed by SORTEE and run on the Janeway platform with the California Digital Library.Website ↗
22 pages across 5 topic areas
Laboratory Operations & Safety
- Camera Trap: How It Works, Survey Design and Research Data Standards
How camera traps record wildlife, what survey effort INBO reports, and how CTMS and Camtrap DP structure the data.…
- Ecosystem Ecology: Concepts & Field Methods
Ecosystem ecology studies biotic and abiotic material and energy fluxes. Learn core measurement methods, flux towers, and field observation networks.…
- Fire Danger: Ratings, Indices & Field Protocols
Fire danger rates landscape fire potential using NFDRS indices. Understand adjective rating classes, fuel moisture models, and field station safety pr…
- FIREMON: Fire Effects Monitoring Guide
FIREMON provides standardized field methods and analysis tools to monitor post-fire ecological change, fuel loading, and burn severity across landscap…
- Forest Management: Principles and Planning
A complete reference on sustainable forest management, multi-use statutory planning under 36 CFR 219, FAO C&I pillars, and forest inventory field prot…
- Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest: Guide
Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest guide to small watershed methods, acid rain discoveries, long-term biogeochemical datasets, and field station protoc…
- ISPM 15: Wood Packaging Rules & Treatment Guide
ISPM 15 governs wood packaging material in global trade, requiring heat treatment and certified marking to prevent invasive quarantine pest transmissi…
- Shelterwood System: Forestry Ecology and Silvicultural Management
An authoritative guide to the shelterwood silvicultural system, covering preparatory, seed, and removal cuts, regeneration ecology, and species suitab…
- Timber Cruise: Forest Inventory Methods and Standards
A timber cruise estimates standing forest volume and value using fixed plots, prism sampling, log scaling rules, and USDA Forest Service inventory sta…
- Wildlife Insights: Camera Trap Data Guide
A complete guide to Wildlife Insights: cloud architecture, deployment metadata schemas, AI species identification, and open biodiversity data sharing.…
Research Methods & Statistics
- What Is Conservation Biology? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths
A guide to conservation biology: what it studies, its major sub-disciplines, the federal and private funding landscape, common research methods, and t…
- What Is Ecology? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths
A complete introduction to ecology: what it studies, its major sub-disciplines, the real federal and private funders behind ecological research, commo…
- What Is Forestry? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths
A thorough answer to "what is forestry," covering its major subfields, the USDA Forest Service/NIFA McIntire-Stennis/NSF funding landscape, common res…
- What Is Remote Sensing? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths
Remote sensing measures the Earth from satellites, aircraft and drones. Optical, radar and lidar sensors, Landsat and Sentinel, image analysis, applic…
- What Is Wildlife Biology and Wildlife Management?
Wildlife biology is the science of wild animal populations and their habitats, and wildlife management is the applied practice built on it. How the fi…
- Zoology vs Ecology: Key DifferencesComparison
Zoology is the study of animals; ecology is the study of how organisms interact with each other and their environment. Compare scope, methods, complia…
Research Data Management
- COMADRE: Animal Matrix Database Research Guide
COMADRE animal matrix database guide: discover matrix population models, Rcompadre workflows, demographic metadata, data structures, and citation stan…
- IUCN Red List: Categories, Data Terms and How to Cite
IUCN Red List explained: the nine categories, how many species are assessed and threatened, data-use terms for researchers, and how to cite it.…
- NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network): Continental-Scale Ecological Data for Researchers
NEON is an NSF-funded, Battelle-operated observatory producing standardized, long-term ecological and environmental sensor data across 81 U.S. field s…
- OBIS: The Ocean Biodiversity Information System for Marine Research Data
OBIS is the global open-access platform for marine biodiversity occurrence data, governed under IOC-UNESCO — related to, but organizationally and scie…
Research Information & Identifiers
- Darwin Core occurrenceID: Persistent IDs for Specimens
How Darwin Core's occurrenceID uniquely and persistently identifies individual biological and museum specimen records within GBIF, and why that granul…
Scholarly Publishing
- Konza Prairie Biological Station: LTER Site, Ownership and Data
Who owns Konza Prairie, what the station, LTER and NEON each do, its bison herd, and how researchers find Konza datasets.…
