eLTER Methods-Costs Workshop adopted 71 Standard Observations from four ecosystem ‘spheres’

eLTER PPP WP4 and WP6, and eLTER PLUS WP3* jointly organised a ‘Methods-Costs Workshop’ at the CNR Headquarters in Rome, Italy from 10-12 January 2023.

The aim was to collect all available information on the elements that affect the costings of the eLTER Standard Observations (SOs) in different habitats and different ‘spheres’ (atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and socio-econosphere). This information is crucial for building the eLTER National RI, i.e., the eLTER Sites and eLTSER Platforms. The main goals of the workshop were to:
(1) create an understanding of the detailed SOs in different habitats and spheres, and fill the gaps in SO protocols and methods, and
(2) update costs for sensor-based, sample-based and retrieval-based methods.

To achieve the goals, eLTER National Coordinators and expert groups were invited to attend the workshop. Altogether about 50 participants from 15 European countries including Israel attended the workshop either in person or via video. At the end of the workshop, 71 SOs from the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere were adopted. Work on the socioecological SOs is continuing.

Recommendations were made for the SOs that need to be measured for each of the eLTER habitats in Site categories 1 and 2. Also the experts agreed on the cost estimation of the proposed Prime and Basic methods for atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere and hydrosphere SOs.

*eLTER PPP WP4 - Financial framework
eLTER PPP WP6 - Operation and design: NRI
 eLTER PLUS WP3 - Interoperability of eLTER Standard Observation variables – the user perspective