eLTER formalized its cooperation with the UNECE air pollution monitoring

More than 100 LTER-Europe sites belong to the air pollution effects monitoring of the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP).

The long-term International Cooperation Centers (ICP) of ICP Forests, ICP Waters, and ICP Integrated Monitoring, and several data and analysis groups, have for many decades been identifying ecosystem damage (and subsequent recovery) from air pollution. eLTER and the ICPs work in the same realm of environmental issues, address common societal grand challenges, and work towards an improvement of the state of environment with datadriven advice to policy makers.

The ICP’s focus is, among other pollutants, on nitrogen, sulphur, ground level ozone, and heavy metals. Those monitoring sites joining the eLTER RI will additionally measure complementary parameters while maintaining the protocols of the ICPs, thus broadening their usability. In a world of ever more complex sustainability issues, data obtained from beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries is invaluable for understanding ecosystem change and the drivers involved.

In September, the parties of the Convention agreed to sign a cooperation letter to formalize joint work in the future. This cooperation brings us closer to the vision of a European environmental Research Infrastructure serving both science and policy.

Thomas Dirnböck, Environment Agency Austria