The following are recommendations developed by the CAP LTER Project Management Team* regarding technicians, Graduate Research Assistants (GRA), and Undergraduate Research Assistants (UGRA).
A. Field research projects (long-term experiments, monitoring, survey 200 etc.)
- CAP LTER’s Project Manager (Marcia Nation) is responsible for reporting research activities and results to the National Science Foundation.
- CAP LTER’s Site Manager (Stevan Earl) is responsible for overall management of technical teams and coordinating site access on all CAP projects involving field sites.
- CAP LTER’s Information Manager (Philip Tarrant) is responsible for archiving and documenting all research data produced under CAP LTER.
- CAP LTER’s Analytical Laboratory Manager (Cathy Kochert) oversees all chemical and biological analyses done in the GEL or other CAP LTER laboratories, and supervises technicians, GRAs, and UGRAs who conduct such analyses.
- CAP LTER’s Head Field Technician (Roy Erickson) oversees all field work and coordinates with the Analytical Laboratory Manager on analyses.
- Other CAP LTER scientists, including CAP LTER post-docs, also directly supervise some technicians and GRAs on projects for which they are primarily responsible, but this must be coordinated with the Site Manager (Stevan Earl).
- Where possible, CAP LTER long-term monitoring and long-term experiment projects should be staffed by CAP LTER technicians or hourly UGRAs, not by GRAs.
- GRAs who are assigned to specific long-term research maintenance tasks or sample collection/analysis are responsible for communicating with the Site Managers, Project Manager, and Information Manager, in addition to working with their major advisor.
- Project leaders are ultimately responsible for data submission to the information manager (Tarrant) and for data documentation, but can assign student workers or ask for assistance in accomplishing data entry. Frequent interaction with the CAP LTER Information Manager (Tarrant), to set up databases, and ensure timely data entry and documentation, is required of all projects!
B. Data mining, remote sensing, modeling, and other non-field projects
- Informatics Laboratory Manager (Philip Tarrant) is responsible for overall coordination of these projects.
- CAP LTER’s Information Manager (Philip Tarrant) assists with data mining and supervises CAP LTER’s GIS technician and data entry staff
- Other CAP LTER scientists, including CAP LTER post-docs, also directly supervise some technicians and GRAs on projects for which they are primarily responsible, but this must be coordinated with Tarrant.
- These projects may be staffed by GRAs or by Informatics Lab personnel.
- GRAs assigned to such projects are responsible for communicating with the Information Manager, in addition to their major advisor.