LTER Sites
The site level has been the best known in-situ component of LTER over the past two decades. Many European LTER sites, set up for a range of pure research purposes, have been maintained for subsequent projects and are thus equipped with a wide variety of long term monitoring components; they do not share a standard design. As a result, European site-level LTER facilities are very variable.
The LTER process in Europe has taken concrete steps towards:
- establishment of more detailed site categories
- development of criteria for LTER Sites
- continued improvement of the documentation of LTER Sites in DEIMS-SDR
Acknowledgement of each site by the national LTER network:
These measures have moved us towards a more consistent distributed network of ~500 LTER Sites (status: May 2021) which represents an excellent basis for European scale eLTER projects and the further infrastructure development towards a formal eLTER Research Infrastructure.
LTER Site categories
The eLTER site category scheme was developed in close interaction between eLTER projects and all National Coordinators and their teams. The site categories concept (comprising sites and platforms), overall design and mandatory criteria were adopted by the eLTER Interim Council in September 2022.
The site categories are based on compliance with eLTER’s Whole System Approach (WAILS) and the concept of eLTER Standard Observations. For each ecosystem sphere (geo-, hydro-, bio-, atmo- and sociosphere) there is a set of Standard Observation variables. These variables can be measured either with a basic method (simple, simple spatial design, lower measurement frequencies, etc., with the target of reducing costs) or a prime method (more demanding, high measurement and replication frequencies, etc., thus more expensive to implement).
eLTER Site Category 1 (Previously: ‘Master site’, ‘supersite’; ‘LTER hub’; ‘HIS=Highly Instrumented Site’; M-Site): eLTER Category 1 Sites represent the highest site category. The holistic approach at Category 1 Sites covers all ecosystem spheres and all variable groups of the eLTER Standard Observations with at least the basic method. In addition, such Sites specialise on at least two spheres in which Standard Observation variables are measured with the prime method.
Highly instrumented and long-term operated sites, featuring a whole system approach in terms of combining regular sampling, permanent measurements and inventories at appropriate intervals across drivers and ecosystem compartments. Design of site customised according to the ecological profile of the site and enabling integrated analyses across system strata (geosphere to atmosphere) and covering the required spatial scales. Experimental approaches are applied or are possible. All year access and power supply must be secured in order to enable measurement of e.g. climate data according to international standards. Close connection and co-location with other networks and/or related projects is often providing added value to this Site category (e.g. ICOS, UNECE ICPs, national monitoring networks…).
eLTER Site Category 2 (Previously: ‘Regular site’, ‘R-Site): Category 2 Sites observe and investigate the whole ecosystem at a basic level. This is evidenced by covering all ecosystem spheres and their related Standard Observations variables with the basic method.
Like Category 1 sites, Category 2 sites comply with the Whole System Approach (WAILS) but differ in magnitude of instrumentation and the choice of methods. Simpler and cheaper methods allow for a larger number of Category 2 Sites, which is crucial for achieving proper coverage at the European scale and specifically for large-scale data products that need consistent observation data across ecosystem spheres for multi- and cross-site analyses.
Access to Sites and Platforms
DEIMS-SDR
LTER Sites in Europe
LTSER Platforms in Europe
eLTER TA-RA scheme
National LTER networks in Europe
Videos of Sites and Platforms