Abstract: Is nature predictable? If so, can we use that understanding to better manage and conserve ecosystems? Near-term ecological forecasting is an emerging interdisciplinary research area that aims to improve our ability to predict ecological processes on timescales that can be meaningfully validated and iteratively updated. In this talk, Prof. Dietze will focus on the challenges and opportunities in this field, spanning advances in environmental monitoring, statistics, data science, and cyberinfrastructure, and drawing on examples related to the terrestrial carbon cycle, tick-borne disease, the soil microbiome, and vegetation phenology. Finally, he will highlight ongoing efforts to build an ecological forecasting community of practice. Bio: Prof. Michael Dietze is faculty in the Department of Earth & Environment, where his research focuses on ecological forecasting and model-data integration. Dietze is the author of the book “Ecological Forecasting” and co-founder and chair of the Ecological Forecasting Initiative, an interdisciplinary community of practice with a network of global chapters focused on using iterative near-real-time methods to respond to pressing environmental needs. He also leads PEcAn, an open-source community cyberinfrastructure project focused on model-data integration that supports >20 process-based terrestrial ecosystem models. Dietze previously chaired the science advisory committee for NSF National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), a 30-year, > $1B continental monitoring system. Dietze received his Bachelor's and PhD from Duke University, was a postdoc at Harvard, and faculty at the University of Illinois before relocating to BU in 2012, where he also has affiliations with the Hariri Center, Biogeosciences, CEID, URBAN, and IGS.