The French LTER network met to discuss progress in their unique data portal

The annual meeting of the French OZCAR NRI (Critical Zone Observatories, research and applications) was held in the South of France, March 7 to 10th, 2022 at Vogüe on the banks of the Ardèche River under the scientific banner "sediments and contamination".

The OZCAR NRI gathers 21 long-term field observatories monitoring one or several compartments of the Critical Zone and aims to develop a systemic understanding of the environment. The conference was held in a hybrid mode and allowed the participants (more than 110 people) to appreciate the achievements made over the past year by the NRI. This has included: progress in developing a unique data portal, developments at the interface between data and models, progress in shared instrumentation and on the transverse research themes.

Two invited keynotes, Gilles Brocard and Emma Rochel-Newall, illustrated the virtue of ecosystem multidisciplinary approaches. The field visit focused on the hydrometeorological observatory of the Claduègne watershed, the presentation of the ongoing research projects in this catchment and a meeting with local stakeholders.

The last day of the meeting focused on the international context with a presentation of the International Critical Zone initiative for early career scientists by Sylvain Küppel, a brief overview of the Critical zone observatory of the Instrumented Farm at Leeds University (UK) by Steven Banwart and a presentation of the recent development of site categorization in eLTER-RI by Michael Mirtl. Participants enjoyed meeting physically after the long period of COVID-related travel restrictions and enjoyed the many opportunities offered by these busy days to exchange ideas about science and observation.