Kaennel Dobbertin, M. (Ed.). (2009). Long-term ecosystem research: understanding the present to shape the future. Abstracts. International Conference Long‐term ecosystem research. Zürich, Switzerland: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL.

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Long‐term ecosystem research:  

understanding the present  to shape the future 

International Conference   Zurich, Switzerland 

September 7‐10, 2009   

 

Abstracts   

         

Edited by Michèle Kaennel Dobbertin   

Published by the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL  CH‐8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland, 2009 

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Program Committee 

Norbert Kräuchi, Matthias Dobbertin, Michèle Kaennel Dobbertin Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland   

Scientific Committee  Rainer Matyssek

Technical University of Munich TUM, Freising, Germany   

Paolo Cherubini, Matthias Dobbertin, Beat Frey, Elisabeth Graf Pannatier, Michèle Kaennel  Dobbertin, Norbert Kräuchi,  Martine Rebetez, Marcus Schaub, Maria Schmitt Oehler,  Silvia Stofer, Anne Thimonier Rickenmann, Peter Waldner, Andreas Zingg  

Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland  Wim de Vries

Alterra, Wageningen UR, The Netherlands  Marco Ferretti

TerraData environmetrics, Siena, Italy  Werner Eugster

ETH Zurich, Switzerland  Markus Neumann BWF, Austria  Svein Solberg

Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway   

Recommended citation 

Kaennel Dobbertin, M. (Ed) 2009. Long‐term ecosystem research: understanding the present to  shape the future. International Conference, Zurich, Switzerland, 7‐10 Sept 2009. Abstracts. 

Birmensdorf, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL. 118 pp. 

Electronic version available from 

http://www.wsl.ch/publikationen/books/index_EN   

© Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, 2009 

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As  Captain  Robert  FitzRoy  was  looking  for  a  companion  on  his  two‐year  voyage  on  the  Beagle,  his  friend  the  botany  professor  John  Stevens  Henslow  recommended a student of  his, Charles Darwin, as "amply qualified for collecting, observing & noting any thing worthy to be  noted  in  Natural  History".  Darwin's  father  strongly  objected  this  project,  which  he  considered  a  waste  of time. As we all know, this "waste of time" was the origin of nothing  less than the modern theory of evolution.

Darwin  was  not  only  a  theorist,  but  also  a  lifelong  collector  of  painstaking  scientific  observations.  Nowadays  it  is  obvious  that  Darwin  could  not have elaborated the theory of  evolution without first collecting a large body of data. The same holds true for today's long‐

term ecosystem research, and especially for ecosystem monitoring.

We collect data to answer today’s questions, but also tomorrow's. This is challenging in many respects.  How  do we maintain measurement continuity, data storage and data accessiblity? 

How  do  we  expand  our  range  of  research  questions  and  methods,  without  affecting data  consistency?  And  if  we  can't  formulate  tomorrow's  questions  and  hypotheses  yet,  can we  nonetheless  improve  the  chances  that  today's  data  will  be  useful  in  answering  them?  It is  worth recalling that, just as penicillin, nylon, and Teflon were all created through laboratory  surprises,  likewise  some  of  the  most  important  discoveries  in  environmental  science  –  including acid rain, the Antarctic ozone hole, and the effects of DDT on birds of prey – grew  out of observational programs that were originally begun for completely different purposes.

If  only  we  knew  what  we  don't  know  –  and  what  we  will  need  to  know  in  the  future! 

Meanwhile,  let  us  create  opportunities  to  reflect  together  on  these  challenges.  The  International  Conference  Long‐term  ecosystem  research:  Understanding  the  present  to  shape  the  future  offers  such  opportunities,  and  I  am  looking  forward  to  stimulating  presentations and challenging discussions.

James Kirchner

Director, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL

James Kirchner

Foreword

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The  concept of long‐term observation of forest ecosystems was initially applied in the early  1970s  to  comprehensively  assess  the  matter  flow  in  forest  ecosystems.   Preliminary  outcomes, however, led to the hypothesis that the prevailing acidic atmospheric deposition was  triggering  soil  acidification  and  enhancing  base‐cation  leaching.  This  accounted  for  nutritional  imbalances and forest dieback in the late 1970s on high‐elevation sites in Central  Europe.  Searching  for  synchronizing  factors  it  became  very  clear  that  the  functioning  of  forest  ecosystems  was  still  poorly  understood,  and  that  forest  monitoring  was  needed  to  account for the temporal and spatial variability of such systems.

The  more  knowledge  we  gained  on  forest  ecosystem  functioning  in  the past decades, the  more we had to face the complexity of how forests may react to environmental changes. Up to  now  monitoring  of  the  vitality  status  of  European  forests  has  been  based  on  the  observation of a number of variables and processes at the meso‐ and macro‐scale. However,  it  was  disregarded  to  a  certain  extent  that  a  dynamically changing environment requires a  permanent testing of relevant observation scales, methodologies, and time frames. This may well  explain  why  the  resilience  of  forest  ecosystems  has  frequently  been  underestimated  during  the  past  decades.  Indeed, little attention has been paid to other effects such as site  history,  long‐  and  short‐term  impact  of  management  practices,  climatic  variability,  and  processes  at  the micro‐scale which could comprehensively explain stand performance, and,  in particular, the enhanced forest growth in Europe.

Therefore  we  need  a  discussion  on  how  to  broaden  the  scope  of  current  monitoring  and  research  programmes. Methods for extrapolating findings across those different scales and  forms  of  land  use  have  to  be  developed  and  integrated  up  to  the  landscape  level.  In  this  context  much  more  emphasis  should  be  placed  on  understanding  the  extent to which the  initial state of ecosystem genesis is affecting the processes and structures at later stages of  development.  Future  monitoring  concepts should therefore integrate both the initial phase  of  ecosystem  development  as  well  as  chronosequence  approaches  including  climatic  gradients.

Landscape monitoring may hence become an effective tool when asking the right questions, making  the  right  diagnosis  and  thus,  coming  up  with  the  right therapy. In this context the  monitoring  of  forests  and  entire  landscapes  gains  new  relevance  with  regard  to,  e.g.,  accessing data on carbon storage. However, we are facing new methodological challenges to fully  assess  carbon  budgets and to find out to which extent forests really contribute to the  global  carbon  cycle  and  how  to  decide  between  mitigation‐  and  adaptation‐oriented  management practices

Reinhard F. J. Hüttl

Uwe Schneider

Oliver Bens Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, Germany

15 Corresponding author: Hüttl, Reinhard F. J. (Reinhard.Huettl@gfz‐potsdam.de)

In: Kaennel Dobbertin, M. (Ed) 2009. Long‐term ecosystem research: Understanding the present to shape the future.

Int. Conference Zurich, Switzerland, 7‐10 Sept 2009. Abstracts. Birmensdorf, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL. 118 pp.

Long‐term Ecosystem Research: why monitoring is so important

Opening session

2818

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Markus Neumann

Different  approaches  need  to  be  distinguished  in  gaining  new  scientific  insights:  while  experiments  are  statistically designed, strictly controlled, and evidentiary, monitoring often  aims  at  the  pure  description  of  untouched  systems,  sometimes  even  avoiding  human  influence as much as possible. An experiment gets the significance from its statistical power, while  monitoring  gets  its  informative  value  from  the  duration  and  the  constancy  of  unchanged assessments. Both pave the way of scientific advancement, with advantages and drawbacks.

Current  environmental  issues  such  as  sustainability,  growth  trends,  global  change,  biodiversity and environmental pollution need a reference for assessing future development.

By  gathering  information about some variables describing the system status environmental monitoring offers a way to establish such a baseline for the evaluation of possible changes.

The  presentation  gives  several  examples  for  successfully  implemented  monitoring  procedures and analyses the reasons for success and failures of such programmes. Selected  results of the European monitoring programme ICP Forests are presented. Furthermore, the presentation  will  deal  with  questions  of  data  quality  and  homogeneity,  data  storage  and  retrieving,  the  importance  of meta‐information, the relation between temporal and cyclical  variation,  plot  selection  and  representativeness.  This  enables  us  to  derive  some  general  guidelines  and  to  provide  hints  for  a  promising  set‐up  and  management  of environmental  long‐term  monitoring  programmes.  It  seems  crucial  (i)  to  define  objectives  as  precisely as  possible,  (ii)  to  decide  clearly  about parameters to be assessed, and (iii) to strictly follow a  statistical  design.  Widely  monitoring  information  is  retrospectively  used  to  explain  an  observed  pattern  (in  time  and/or  in  space),  and  to  pose  hypotheses that can be tested by  experiments.

Although  often  a  strong  correlation  can  be  found  between  various  impacts  and  observed  effects,  a  strict  cause‐effects  relationship  can  rarely  be  derived.  More  efficiency  can  be  expected  if  monitoring  is  designed  to  provide  data  which  are  then  compared  with  hypothetical expectations based on a priori hypotheses.

Markus Neumann

Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape (BFW), Austria

Corresponding author: Neumann, Markus (markus.neumann@bfw.gv.at)

Environmental monitoring: examples and recommendations

16 Session 1: What it is

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The  Glacier  Lakes  Ecosystem  Experiments  Site  (GLEES)  is  a  research  watershed  located  at  3200‐3500 m elevation in the Snowy Range of southeast Wyoming, USA, where scientists are examining  the  long‐term  effects  of  atmospheric  deposition  and  climate  change  on  an  ecosystem  at  the  alpine  and  subalpine  ecotone.  It  was  established  in  the  late  1980s  to  monitor long‐term changes in wilderness‐like ecosystems.

The  GLEES  is  in  complex  terrain  at  high  elevation  with  considerable  amount  of  exposed  quartzite  bedrock,  immature  soils,  and  alpine  lakes  in  glacial  cirque  basins.  The  system  is  snow dominated, with a permanent snowfield and snow cover for much of the year. Most of the site has a short 3‐month snow‐free growing season. Ambient meteorology, snowfall, and deposition  data  are  collected  at  the  site,  and  hydrology  and  biogeochemistry  data  are  collected  at  two  of  the  alpine  lakes.  The  GLEES  is  a  part  of  the  national networks for wet  (NADP), dry (CASTNet), and precipitation (SNOTEL) deposition monitoring in the US, as well as an Ameriflux eddy covariance site for monitoring heat, energy and carbon fluxes. The site has  a large number of permanent vegetation plots in eleven distinct habitats. The database  includes  checklists  of  phytoplankton,  zooplankton,  periphyton,  macroinvertebrates,  and  vascular plant species. Topographic, geology, soils, and vegetative habitats map exist for the site.

The site has recently begun to undergo ecosystem change resulting from tree morality from bark  beetles,  and  research  is  documenting  changes  in  carbon  fluxes  from  this  infestation. 

Research is also determining critical loads of nitrogen and sulfur at the site. Long‐term trends in deposition, short‐term impacts of beetle kill, and monitoring logistics will be presented.

John M. Frank

John L. Korfmacher

William J. Massman

Robert C. Musselman US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, United States of America

18 Corresponding author: Musselman, Robert C. (rmusselman@fs.fed.us)

The Glacier Lakes Ecosystem Experiments Site, a long‐term monitoring site in the Snowy Range of Wyoming, USA

Session 1: What it is

1773

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The  Glacier  Lakes  Ecosystem  Experiments  Site  (GLEES)  is  a  research  watershed  located  at  3200‐3500 m elevation in the Snowy Range of southeast Wyoming, USA, where scientists are examining  the  long‐term  effects  of  atmospheric  deposition  and  climate  change  on  an  ecosystem  at  the  alpine  and  subalpine  ecotone.  It  was  established  in  the  late  1980s  to  monitor long‐term changes in wilderness‐like ecosystems.

The  GLEES  is  in  complex  terrain  at  high  elevation  with  considerable  amount  of  exposed  quartzite  bedrock,  immature  soils,  and  alpine  lakes  in  glacial  cirque  basins.  The  system  is  snow dominated, with a permanent snowfield and snow cover for much of the year. Most of the site has a short 3‐month snow‐free growing season. Ambient meteorology, snowfall, and deposition  data  are  collected  at  the  site,  and  hydrology  and  biogeochemistry  data  are  collected  at  two  of  the  alpine  lakes.  The  GLEES  is  a  part  of  the national networks for wet  (NADP), dry (CASTNet), and precipitation (SNOTEL) deposition monitoring in the US, as well as an Ameriflux eddy covariance site for monitoring heat, energy and carbon fluxes. The site has a large number of permanent vegetation plots in eleven distinct habitats. The database  includes  checklists  of  phytoplankton,  zooplankton,  periphyton,  macroinvertebrates,  and  vascular plant species. Topographic, geology, soils, and vegetative habitats map exist for the site.

The site has recently begun to undergo ecosystem change resulting from tree morality from bark  beetles,  and  research  is  documenting  changes  in  carbon  fluxes  from  this  infestation. 

Research is also determining critical loads of nitrogen and sulfur at the site. Long‐term trends in deposition, short‐term impacts of beetle kill, and monitoring logistics will be presented.

John M. Frank

John L. Korfmacher

William J. Massman

Robert C. Musselman

US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, United States of America

Corresponding author: Musselman, Robert C. (rmusselman@fs.fed.us)

The Glacier Lakes Ecosystem Experiments Site, a long‐term monitoring site in the Snowy Range of Wyoming, USA

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Vit Šrámek, Radek Novotný, Bohumír Lomský, Zora Lachmanová

The  Ore Mountains (Krušné hory) are located in Central Europe on the border between the  Czech  Republic  and  Saxony.  They  are  world  famous  for  their  air  pollution  history.  Sulphur  dioxide,  produced  mainly by coal power plants and the chemical industry, caused extensive  decline  of  forests  in  the  mountain  range  (700–124X0  m  a.s.l.)  during  the  1970s  and  1980s. 

During those years, the yearly mean of sulphur dioxide concentration reached more than 200 µg.m^‐3. Atmospheric deposition of sulphate exceeded 80 kg ha^‐1a^‐1 on open plots and 300 kg.

ha^‐1a^‐1  in  a  mature  stand  of  Norway  spruce.  Dying  trees  were  felled  on  more  than  40,000  hectares, mainly in the north‐eastern part of the region.

Air  pollution  was  reduced  significantly  during  the  1990s,  when  the  main  pollution  sources  were  desulphurized.  The  last  case of extensive damage to forests was recorded during the  winter  period  of  1995/1996,  when  the  unfavourable  meteorological  conditions  caused  the  culmination  of  SO2  pollution  under  the  inversion  layer.  The  current  state  of  the  Ore  Mountains  forests,  however,  is  still  not  optimal.  In  the  south‐western  part,  the  "original" 

stands  remained,  represented  mainly  by  Norway  spruce.  In  these  locations  the  long‐term  acidification leads to significant leaching of base cations resulting in magnesium and calcium deficiency.

Visible effects of the poor soil condition on forest vitality have surprisingly appeared only in  the  last  ten  years. In the north‐eastern part of the Ore Mountains, the vitality of even‐aged  forest stands of "substitute" tree species, such as white birch, blue spruce or mountain ash,  is rather weak and new forestry measures are being applied to convert these sites into more stable  forest  ecosystems.  The  research  activities  in  the  area  started  fifty  years  ago  with  sulphur  dioxide  and  fluorine  measurement.  Now  they  are  oriented  more  towards  the  nutritional balance of forest stands, persisting effects of acid deposition, ecology and vitality of substitute forest stands, and, last but not least, on the effectiveness of forestry measures aimed at the improvement of forest vitality and stability.

Zora Lachmanová

Bohumír Lomský

Radek Novotný

Vit Šrámek Forestry and Game Management Research Institute, Czech Republic

19 Corresponding author: Šrámek, Vit (sramek@vulhm.cz)

Ore Mountains – the long‐term air pollution "experiment" on forests

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David Colville

Since  2000  the  Applied  Geomatics  Research  Group (AGRG) has been monitoring, mapping,  and modeling the landscapes of South West Nova Scotia (SWNS), Canada. This area is home  to  the  South  West Nova Biosphere Reserve (SWNBR), one of Canada’s recently designated  UNESCO  Biosphere  Reserves.  At  the  core  of  the  SWNBR  are  Kejimkujik  National  Park  and  National Historic Site and the Tobeatic Wilderness Reserve which together form the largest  protected area within the Maritime Provinces. SWNS continues to be an ideal laboratory for many of AGRG’s research activities.

In  collaboration  with  our  research  partners  (i.e.,  companies,  associations,  universities,  and  government  departments),  the  AGRG  has  been  actively  engaged  in  numerous  ecosystem‐

based studies within the SWNS geography, including:

‐  the  deployment  and  long‐term  maintenance  of  sensor  networks  (i.e.,  20  meteorological  stations  and  80  temperature  data  loggers)  to  better  understand  microclimates  and  investigate the impacts that an ever‐changing climate has on vegetated communities;

‐  the  development  of  GIS‐based  software  tools  that  utilize  remotely  sensed  imagery  to  analyze  and  map  meteorological  conditions  (i.e.,  rain,  temperature,  wind,  and  solar  radiation) in support of landscape‐level ecological analyses and the production of alternative energy atlases;

‐ the use of remotely sensed imagery collected over more than 20 years to identify and map  the stand‐level changes occurring in the forested landscapes of SWNS and thereby assess the amount and rate of forest fragmentation taking place;

‐ the application of temporal aerial photographs and LiDAR surveys for conducting in‐depth  spatial studies on the long‐term changes occurring on the coastal habitats of Species At Risk (SAR), such as the Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus), and other wildlife species;

‐  the  development  and  implementation  of  long‐term  ecological  monitoring  protocols  to  measure, assess, and compare the changes occurring in ecological landscapes over time and across  geographies  (i.e.,  BioMon  software  development  for  the  Smithsonian  Institute,  investigating  landscape  change  protocols  for  Environment  Canada’s  Ecological  Monitoring  and Assessment Network, and ecological integrity monitoring for Parks Canada).

This  presentation  will  provide  an  overview  of  a  number  of  these ongoing studies. Lessons  learned and implications of this research will be addressed. Consideration will be given to the value  of  these  efforts  to  our  research  partners  and  organizations  such  as  the  South West  Nova Biosphere Reserve.

David Colville

Applied Geomatic Research Group, Centre of Geographic Sciences, NSCC, Canada

Corresponding author: Colville, David (David.Colville@nscc.ca)

Conducting long‐term ecosystem research in South West Nova Scotia, Canada

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Lars Lundin

Environmental  pressures  exert  impacts  on  the  ecosystem  conditions  and  the  multi‐

functionality  of  the  systems  changes.  Monitoring  provides  information  on  effects  on  land  and  water  with  causative  explanations  on  interactions  between  different  pressures  and  related  effects.  Such  pressures  relate  to air pollution in a changing climate situation. In the  international  cooperative  programme  on  integrated  monitoring  of  air  pollution  effects  on  ecosystems (ICP Integrated Monitoring) within the Convention on Long‐range transboundary air  pollution  (CLRTAP),  physical,  chemical  and  biological measurements are carried out in a  pan‐European programme. This operates in collaboration with five other ICPs, a task force on health  and  expert  groups  in  the  working  group  on  effects  (WGE).  Results  have  changed  European pollution conditions considerably.

Issues involved relate to acidification and its recovery, eutrophication with nitrogen impacts, heavy  metals  and  all  in  relation  to  a  changing  climate.  High  SO4  deposition  together  with  inorganic N acidified soils and waters but these systems are now slowly recovering. Nitrogen on the other hand, accumulates in the ecosystems and at low CN‐ratios (CN<25) leaching of  nitrate may reach high levels. Furthermore N affects vegetation conditions and biodiversity.

Nitrogen  also  cooperates  in  carbon  sequestration  and  increases  carbon  storage.  Climate  change with higher precipitation and temperatures influences hydrology and organic matter decomposition with consequences for balances and turnover of elements in the ecosystem.

Higher outflows of organic substances are also associated with metal transport.

Such  effects  are  revealed  by  the  programme  that  would  benefit from more sites included. 

This  presentation  gives  new  information  on  current  conditions  and  results  from  forest  ecosystem monitoring.

Lars Lundin Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden

21 Corresponding author: Lundin, Lars (Lars.Lundin@vatten.slu.se)

Air pollution and climate change effects investigated by long‐term forest ecosystem monitoring

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Giorgio Matteuci (1), Bruno De Cinti (1), Alberto Masci (2), Riccardo Valentini (3), Giuseppe Scarascia Mugnozza (4)

Forest ecosystems play a major role in the global carbon cycle and are important in the cycle of  other  greenhouse  gases (O₃, N₂O, CH₄) and for filtering anthropogenic pollutants. At the  same  time,  forests  are  exposed  to  natural  (climate,  meteorology,  site  features,  etc.)  and  anthropogenic  (pollution,  nitrogen  deposition,  management,  climate  change)  factors  that  affect  their  functioning,  carbon  sequestration  potential  and  can  modify  their  geographic  distribution and biodiversity.

Since the 1990s, research and monitoring of forest ecosystems have gained new momentum due to the establishment of experimental sites to investigate their functionality, the drivers  of primary productivity, and the responses to climate and to local and transported pollution.

In  1991,  an  experimental  site  was  established  by  University  of  Tuscia,  Dep.  of  Forest  Environment  and  Resources  in  the  beech  forest of Collelongo (Central Italy, 41°50'58 N, 13°

35'17" E, 1560 m a.s.l.), to study ecology and silviculture of Apenninian beech forests. In 1993, the site was the first European forest to be instrumented to measure ecosystem level fluxes with eddy covariance. In 1996, the area became the first ICP‐Forests level II plot in Italy (ABR

‐1,  CON.ECO.FOR.  programme).  Since  2004,  research  and  monitoring  at  the  site  has  been  coordinated and supervised by the Institute of Agroenvironmental and Forest Biology of the National  Research  Council  (IBAF‐CNR).  In  2006‐07, the site was one of the main stations of  the Long‐Term Ecological Research site "Forests of the Apennine", which is part of the Italian LTER network.

Along the years, the site was included in several EU research (EUROFLUX, CANIF, ECOCRAFT, LTEEF‐II,  CARBOEUROFLUX,  FORCAST,  MEFIQUE,  CARBOEUROPE‐IP)  and  monitoring  projects (ICP‐Forests, ICP‐Integrated Monitoring, ForestFocus, BioSoil).

The presentation will address research and monitoring results obtained along 20 years with  particular  emphasis  on  the  carbon  cycle  studied  with  different  techniques  (canopy  fluxes,  measurement  of  growth,  biomass  harvesting  and  net  primary  production,  soil  carbon  mineralisation) and to the response of beech forest to climate variability. The benefit of the  integration of research and monitoring at intensive experimental sites will be discussed.

In  the  future,  sites  were  both  research  and  monitoring  are  carried  out  should  become  Multilevel Research and Monitoring Platforms to study in detail processes and responses to natural  and  anthropogenic  disturbances.  Those  sites  may  be  selected  with  a  sound  stratification  concept  to  provide  the  necessary  process  understanding  for  upscaling  and  modelling data from large‐scale monitoring networks.

Bruno De Cinti

Giorgio Matteucci

1: CNR–IBAF, National Research Council, Inst. of Agroenvironmental and Forest Biology, Monterotondo Scalo, Italy 2: EFS, Sardinia Forest Institute, Cagliari, Italy 3: UNITUS‐DISAFRI, University of Tuscia, Dep. of Forest Environment and Resources, Viterbo, Italy 4: CRA–DAF, Agricultural Research Council, Dep. of Agronomy, Forestry and Land Use, Rome, Italy Corresponding author: Matteucci, Giorgio (giorgio.matteucci@isafom.cs.cnr.it)

Integrating research and monitoring in a beech forest ecosystem in Central Italy:

the Long‐Term Ecological Research station of Collelongo

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Mark Frenzel, Cornelia Baessler, Stefan Klotz, Steffen Zacharias

TERENO (TERrestrial ENvironmental Observatoria) is a joint collaboration program of several Helmholtz Research Centres in Germany. It started operating in 2008/2009. The main goal of TERENO  is  to  create  regional  observation platforms based on an interdisciplinary and long‐

term research program for the investigation of consequences of global change for terrestrial ecosystems  and  its  socio‐economic  implications.  Several  TERENO  sites  and  platforms  are  members of the German network for long‐term ecological research LTER‐D, one observatory is  both  a  TERENO  and  LTSER  platform  of LTER‐Europe. This facilitates basic exchange with  relevant networks.

TERENO is starting to provide long‐term statistical series of system variables for the analysis and prognosis of global change consequences using integrated model systems, which will be used  to  derive  efficient prevention, mitigation and adaptation strategies. Important system  variables under investigation are fluxes of water, matter and energy within the continuum of the groundwater‐soil‐vegetation‐atmosphere system, long‐term changes of the composition and  functioning  of micro‐organisms, plants and fauna as well as socio‐economic conditions. 

Biodiversity‐related tasks include the measurement and evaluation of ecosystem services as a popular currency to increase public awareness.

The  talk  will  focus  on  the  introduction  of  the  basic  features  of  TERENO  and  the  implementation of methods and approaches after the start of field work.

Mark Frenzel

Stefan Klotz

Steffen Zacharias

Cornelia Baessler Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research ‐ UFZ, Germany

23 Corresponding author: Frenzel, Mark (mark.frenzel@ufz.de)

TERENO: a new long‐term approach to tackle regional consequences of global change

1492

Kaennel Dobbertin, M. (Ed.). (2009). Long-term ecosystem research: understanding the present to shape the future. Abstracts. International Conference Long‐term ecosystem research. Zürich, Switzerland: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL.

Long‐term ecosystem research:

understanding the present to shape the future

International Conference Zurich, Switzerland

September 7‐10, 2009

Abstracts

Edited by Michèle Kaennel Dobbertin

Foreword

Contents

Long‐term ecosystem research:  

understanding the present  to shape the future 

International Conference   Zurich, Switzerland 

September 7‐10, 2009   

Abstracts   

Edited by Michèle Kaennel Dobbertin   