eLTER Highlights from Austria for 2024

The eLTER research infrastructure is promoted in the Austrian RTD Strategy 2030 and the related Research Infrastructure Action Plan. Thus, six universities and a number of public research institutions are committed to contribute 9 category 1, about 10 category 2 eLTER sites and three eLTSER platforms. 

The sites and platforms include both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and cover relevant ecological (from lowland to high mountain), socio-ecological and land-use gradients in Austria. The Austrian LTER community has become increasingly competitive in national research infrastructure calls, so that upgrades of the measurement portfolios according to the eLTER concepts and criteria have been funded. In addition, a targeted project was launched this year to implement the eLTER biodiversity standard monitoring program at 11 sites, including AI-driven acoustic monitoring, eDNA and metabarcoding analyses. 

Some sites and platforms still need to adapt their measurement infrastructure, but in general the commitment of universities and research institutes is high. Another success was funding from the Austrian Academy of Sciences enabling the publication of an impressive number of long-term ecological and socio-ecological datasets from LTER sites and LTSER platforms. Furthermore, the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU) and the Austrian Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt) are interested in applying for two eLTER central services, namely the Topic Centre Synthesis for Actionable Knowledge and the DEIMS-SDR system as part of the Data Topic Centre. 

Overall, the Austrian LTER community has received significant funding to upgrade its infrastructure and to mobilize data during the eLTER implementation process to be ready as a key-partner in the eLTER ERIC once launched.

Author: Thomas Dirnböck