On May 18, the Latin America Sustainability Initiative hosted the inaugural LASI Networked Landscapes Symposium at the University of Oklahoma. The event brought together approximately 80 researchers, field station leaders, agency representatives, industry partners, and university collaborators to discuss opportunities for strengthening coordinated environmental monitoring and place-based sustainability research.
Participants represented organizations and institutions, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, NASA Ames Research Center, Noble Research Institute, the University of Oklahoma, The Oka’ Institute, Oklahoma State University Agricultural Research, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, LI-COR, and the Global Change and Human Health Institute.
The symposium focused on a key opportunity: connecting existing environmental monitoring assets, field stations, data resources, and research expertise across institutions and landscapes. Through a full day of panels, presentations, posters, and working group discussions, participants explored how shared infrastructure and coordinated research approaches can support stronger regional and global environmental monitoring networks.
The program included two panel discussions: “Integrating Regional Research Assets” and “Scaling Perspectives from Oklahoma to Global Environmental Networks.” These conversations highlighted the importance of collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and geographic regions. The symposium also featured a keynote address by Eric Cosio, Professor from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and Director, AndesFlux, “Monitoring carbon and water fluxes in the Amazon Basin: Fixing a spatially biased view”, who discussed biases in large-scale flux monitoring platforms in the Amazon.
A poster session showcased 30 research projects connected to Oklahoma field stations and related environmental research efforts. The session created space for researchers, students, and partners to exchange ideas, identify shared priorities, and explore future collaborations.
The symposium also recognized the five inaugural LASI Seed Grant awardees. These projects reflect the cross-disciplinary and place-based research that LASI aims to support, spanning soil ecology, atmospheric science, genomics, public health, sensor networks, and environmental monitoring.
The awarded projects include:
“Monitoring Soil Moisture Dynamics and Tick Abundance Under Eastern Redcedar Encroachment in Grasslands” — Drs. Bhattarai, Yang, and Li
“Characterizing Coarse- and Supercoarse-Mode Aerosol: A Multi-Site Validation of Networked Sensors” — Drs. Flynn, Loria, and Cai
“Genomics of Population Resilience: Linking Place-Based Environmental Monitoring and Disease Ecology in Oklahoma Treefrog” — Drs. Siler, Belasen, Luttrell, Eichelberger, Williams, Budda, and Edwards
“Field Validation of a Distributive Microclimate Sensing Network for Understanding Extreme Heat Impacts on Community Health” — Drs. Weng, Wimberly, and Cai
“PollenSense: A Field-Based Monitoring Network for Cedar Pollen, Air Quality, and Allergen Exposure” — Drs. Yang, Hu, and Cai
By the afternoon, symposium participants formed four working groups designed to move the Networked Landscapes effort into an implementation phase.
The working groups will focus on:
Regional Data Portal — identifying spatial, biodiversity, soil, and economic data that can contribute to a shared repository.
Coordinated Sampling Protocols — developing a cross-ecosystem framework that can connect field sites from Oklahoma to the Andes.
Flying Lab Platform — exploring a mobile instrument platform, common measures, and training network across field sites.
Digital Twin — integrating hydrological, carbon, and ecosystem models into place-based simulations.
These working groups will help define next steps for building a collaborative research network across field sites, institutions, and monitoring platforms.
Working group kickoff meetings are expected to begin in late July, followed by a cross-group field station convening in September. The next Networked Landscapes Symposium is planned for May 2027, where participants will report on progress and year-end outcomes.
The inaugural symposium marked an important step toward building a coordinated research coalition focused on connected landscapes, shared data, and collaborative environmental monitoring.
