eLTER Socio-Ecological Research Presented at PECS-3 Conference in Montreal

eLTER RI and ILTER researchers discussed recent developments of the RI’s social-ecological research and observation agenda at the PECS-3 Conference last week. Organized by The  Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society, the Resilience Alliance, and NSERC ResNet, the conference hosted some of the world’s foremost thinkers and advocates of place-based social-ecological systems (SES) scholarship for four days of discussion and activity around SES.

Initiated and moderated by eLTER RI early career researcher and PhD candidate Merav Cohen, eLTER researchers from Slovakia, Poland, and Israel, joined by our colleague from LTER Taiwan, hosted a panel on “Long-term socio-ecological research: practice and infrastructure”.

The panel opened with an overview of the history of social-ecological research in ILTER and eLTER showcased by eLTER PLUS SE theme lead Daniel Orenstein. Next, Ľuboš Halada presented how eLTER RI selected and collected official statistics for socio-ecological research in Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) platforms. Zita Izakovicova shared a case study assessment of natural capital from the LTSER Platform of Trnava, Slovakia. Kinga Krauze presented an additional case study, this time from Poland, where nature-based solutions are being implemented to strengthen water security. Teng-Chiu Lin shared his experiences navigating top-down and bottom-up approaches in the establishment of a network of LTSER platforms in Taiwan. Merav Cohen completed the panel by sharing how LTSER platforms are being utilized in her comparative research on the study of SE resilience to pandemics.

"This panel represents the commitment of eLTER RI to reach out to diverse research communities to build bridges and collaborations across disciplines and continents to leverage long-term observation and research toward addressing global and regional sustainability challenges.", said Daniel Orenstein.