Accredited sites 9 Network started 1993 Slovakia LTER Slovakia An extract of the eLTER Site Catalogue www.lter-europe.net This document is an extract of the full eLTER Site Catalogue, and includes all the sites included in the full catalogue for the specified country. The full catalogue included 150 eLTER Sites and eLTSER Platforms from 22 European countries. Edited by Andrew Sier1 Alessandra Pugnetti2 Caterina Bergami2 1NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK 2National Research Council, Institute of Marine Sciences, Italy Published 2019 The full catalogue is available online from www.lter-europe.net How to cite the full catalogue eLTER (2019). eLTER Site Catalogue. Eds.: Sier, A., Pugnetti, A. and Bergami, C. 189pp Images Unless otherwise indicated, all images are sourced from DEIMS and provided by eLTER Research Performing Organisations (responsible for site operations) About the eLTER Site Catalogue Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) is an essential component of world-wide efforts to better understand ecosystems and the environment we belong to and depend on. Through research and long-term observation of representative sites in Europe and around the globe, LTER enhances our understanding of the structure and functions of ecosystems, which are indispensible for people’s life and well-being. The catalogue presents 150 European eLTER Sites (foci for long-term ecosystem observation and research) and eLTSER Platforms (large areas facilitating socio-ecological research), forming about a third of the total European sites. Each site is described in one page, providing a description of the site, the main ecosystems represented, the site’s research purpose(s), its location, research topics and the facilities available to support research. The catalogue is illustrated throughout with photographs from the sites. The eLTER Sites and eLTSER Platforms featured in the catalogue are distributed across 22 European countries and were included in the Horizon 2020 eLTER project (Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem and Socio-Ecological Research Infrastructure, 2015-2019), a collaboration between LTER- Europe and the European Critical Zone Observatories. The aim of the catalogue is to showcase the wide range of eLTER Sites and eLTSER Platforms in Europe, and to attract prospective researchers to use the sites for research, either in-person or by accessing the many environmental datasets available. The eLTER Site Catalogue is based on, and links with, the extensive metadata on global LTER sites available via the Dynamic Ecological Information Management System Site and Dataset Registry (DEIMS- SDR), https://deims.org/. What is European Long-Term Ecosystem Research? Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) is an essential component of worldwide efforts to improve our knowledge of the structure and functions of ecosystems and of their long-term response to environmental, societal and economic drivers. LTER contributes to the knowledge base informing policy and to the development of management options in response to the Grand Challenges under Global Change. European Long-Term Ecosystem Research (eLTER) comprises three main inter-linked components: the LTER-Europe network of sites, projects such as the eLTER H2020 project and the eLTER ESFRI process that is aiming to establish the centrally-coordinated eLTER Research Infrastructure. How the three components of eLTER are related LTER-Europe is the formal European regional group of the global ILTER network. It is a distributed network of research sites for multiple purposes in the fields of ecosystem, biodiversity, and socio-ecological research. LTER-Europe was launched in 2003 and currently comprises 26 national site networks, approximately 450 eLTER Sites (foci for long-term ecosystem observation and research) and 35 eLTSER Platforms (large areas facilitating socio- ecological research). The LTER-Europe pool of in situ facilities, referred to as LTER infrastructure, provides numerous networking activities with permanent governance structures for a huge scientific community. LTER-Europe provides a framework for project development, conceptual work, education, exchange of know-how, communication and institutional integration. R&D projects: Many developments within European LTER have been achieved through EU- funded projects, including ALTER-Net, LIFE+ EnvEurope and ExpeER. The four year Horizon 2020 INFRAIA project eLTER H2020 (European Long-Term Ecosystem and Socio-Ecological Research Infrastructure), started in June 2015, was a flagship project enabling the further development of the European Long-term Ecosystem Research infrastructure and community. During the project LTER-Europe collaborated with the European Critical Zone Observatories (CZO) to jointly develop networks and achieve greater integration. eLTER H2020 aimed to catalyse conceptual and service developments of a distributed, highly integrated and widely used research infrastructure to support a broad range of ecosystem and critical zone research questions. Over 100 sites provided data on long-term trends in environmental change. Scientific test cases using these data addressed a range of environmental and social issues to foster innovation in network level services and to steer conceptual progress. The project’s Transnational Access (TA) scheme, offered free-of-charge opportunities for researchers to visit selected sites to conduct small to medium scale ecological and socio-ecological research projects. eLTER ESFRI process: ESFRI, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, aims to develop the scientifi c integration of Europe and to strengthen its international outreach, through the coordinated development of major research infrastructures. The eLTER Research Infrastructure (eLTER RI) was accepted onto the 2018 ESFRI Roadmap in the summer of 2018, paving the way for its further development and formalisation as a sustainable Research Infrastructure. This work builds on past and current endeavours such as the eLTER H2020 project and draws from the extensive pool of the in situ LTER infrastructure of the LTER-Europe network. eLTER RI will be open for researchers and other users, and will off er a wide range of services, such as access to sites, data, tools and training, through a single access point. It will comprise carefully selected terrestrial, freshwater and transitional water sites. The RI will allow in situ, co-located acquisition of Essential Variables ranging from biophysicochemical to biodiversity and socio-ecological data and will adopt a whole system approach to observe and analyse the environmental system, including understand the human component of ecosystems. While several existing environmental RIs focus on impacts of climate change and/ or other elements of environmental change, eLTER RI will be the only research infrastructure embracing holistically the integrated impacts of such stressors on a wide variety of European benchmark ecosystems. the eLTER RI is further described below. For links to further information about eLTER components, visit www.lter-europe.net/elter-overview How to use site descriptions Each site is described in a single page entry. The QR codes on these pages direct you to network summary information on DEIMS (also accessible from https://deims.org/network/management/ networklist). Information is organised as follows: • Site name • Description of site • Purpose of site, including the extent to which the site supports environmental observations and experimental research • Location text. To determine the site’s precise location, visit the site’s record on DEIMS-SDR (see below) • Main ecosystems at the site • Research topics addressed by the site • Site staff contact name(s) and a contact email if provided • Information about site accessibility and infrastructure/facilities at the site. A key to the infrastructure symbols can be found on the inside back cover and online • Links to related websites are included for most sites. Links to DEIMS are provided in two forms: 1. via the site’s unique DEIMS.ID. To use the DEIMS.ID, append it to the DEIMS-SDR root web address, as in this example: https://deims.org/f30007c4-8a6e-4f11-ab87-569db54638fe (Lago Maggiore, IT) URL root DEIMS.ID 2. Via QR codes for use with a smartphone or tablet: (Wytham, UK) The eLTER Research Infrastructure We live in a world of rapid social, economic and environmental change, facing major environmental issues such as global warming, biodiversity loss and unsustainable pressure on natural resources. To address these problems requires world-class ecosystem research by a well-connected, extensive community of experts, supported by advanced sites and facilities, openly shared, easily accessible data and capacity building programmes. This is the goal of the eLTER Research Infrastructure. The eLTER Research Infrastructure (eLTER RI) is the eLTER RI’s ambition next stage in the European LTER community’s journey To provide a pan-European integrated to create a fully integrated, distributed site network. research infrastructure of long-term We are aiming to achieve this in the framework of the research sites for use in the fields of European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures ecosystem, critical zone and socio- (ESFRI), a strategic instrument to develop the ecological research. With this we aim scientific integration of Europe and to strengthen its to secure and strengthen scientific international outreach. excellence through the highest quality The development of eLTER RI builds upon past and interoperable services