Japan Long Term Ecological Research (JaLTER) Network was established in 2006, currently consisting of 18 core sites and 38 associated sites that represent forest, grassland, lake, and marine ecosystems.
JaLTER is an official member of International LTER (ILTER) Network since 2007.

The network's unified research themes are:
1) Response and feedback of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning under the climate changes
2) Hydro-biogeochemical processes and ecosystem interaction from terrestrial to marine ecosystem
3) Development and establishment of ecosystem monitoring network and techniques with multiple scales and dimensions
 

JaLTER is now undergoing formation of collaborative networks wither other research organizations and networks for two major objectives.

1. Establishment of Global-scale Biodiversity Observation Network under govermental and inter-governmental initiatives

2. Multi-scale assessment of biogeochemical cycles in ecosystems incorporating ecological field surveys, flux tower measurements, remote-sensing, and models mainly to understand the ecosystem responses to global climate change.

Both networking movements assume sharing of data. JaLTER is now assessing the needs for the information management system that promotes the collaborative reearch activities based on these networks.