News
1 February 2023
Research at the Montado LTSER platform has resulted in a globally interesting paper entitled “Grazing and ecosystem service delivery in global drylands” published in Science 378, 915–920 (2022).This is particularly important when we know that livestock grazing on ecosystem services is a hotly debated topic and a challenging one. In this paper, the grazing effect was assessed, taking into account multiple variables and different properties of rangelands such as soil, climate and biodiversity.The...
30 January 2023
HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01Lead by: Tristano Bacchetti-De-Gregoris, SAE SpainBudget: ~€3MLifespan: 2023 – 2026The main goal of the CREDIBLE project is to build momentum and trust for the implementation of carbon farming in the EU. This will be primarily achieved by setting up and moderating a network of initiatives, projects and stakeholders for favouring transparency, environmental integrity, and methodology standardisation in soil carbon accounting.Such a Network of Networks will be responsible...
27 January 2023
iDiv, together with the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, announces three full-time employment positions to work with the new European Topic Center on Biodiversity and Ecosystems on the regulatory monitoring of the EU Nature Directives and knowledge and technical support for the Nature Restoration Law.The European Topic Centre Biodiversity and Ecosystems (ETC-BE) is a Consortium of 24 European organisations with expertise in the topic area of terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodivers...
27 January 2023
During a three-day hybrid workshop shortly before Christmas 2022, eLTER met with NEON to discuss several topics and learn from NEON’s long-term experience in operating a large-scale observation facility. NEON is the US National Science Foundation's National Ecological Observatory Network, a continental-scale observation facility operated by Battelle and designed to collect long-term open access ecological data to better understand how the nation’s ecosystems are changing. NEON has been operation...
26 January 2023
While the effects of climate change become apparent, the need for information on the vitality of forests is increasing. Since detailed information is often lacking, the numerous estimates on forest health are contradictory and speculative. Forest remote sensing can close this information gap. With the improvement of sensor technology (e.g., hyperspectral) and the cost-effective use of UAVs, the application possibilities of remote sensing methods for the vitality assessment of woody plants are in...
25 January 2023
The research team of LTSER Estuaries, Portugal, participated at an event in November to mark National Day of the Sea. The event, which was held at the Centro de Artes e Espetáculos, Figueira da Foz, focused on the valorisation of aquatic resources from the river to the sea. The team presented work undertaken in projects conducted around the Mondego estuary LTSER platform that have addressed the valorisation and sustainability of marine resources.Estuarine systems such as Mondego estuary are biod...
25 January 2023
The Department of Geography of the University of Marburg, Working Group Climatology and Remote Sensing, Prof. Dr. Jörg Bendix, is currently accepting appplications for the project "CropHype - Improving plant recognition based on hyperspectral EnMAP data using Geo Engine". It is a position as PhD student, 3 years, 75% of regular working hours. Learn more and apply.
25 January 2023
New research on microplastics using eLTER data has been published. Microplastics (MPs), which are defined as all plastic particles smaller than 5 mm, can create health problems for all living organisms, including humans, due to their very small size. Recent research has shown that, unexpectedly, mountain snowpack can store high amounts of MPs, derived from both atmospheric deposition and local sources (e.g., tourism).During the 2020-2021 winter, the team investigated the MP content of snow at th...
24 January 2023
The Department of Music at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology is looking for a PhD in Musicology and Interdisciplinary Ocean Studies.The PhD candidate will undertake independent research that connects music studies (broadly understood) to marine environmental topics. The PhD candidate will be hosted by the Department of Music and will develop a research project that sits within the university’s strategic research area NTNU Oceans. NTNU Oceans has coordinated several projects in t...
24 January 2023
EuroGEO is Europe’s part of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) - a worldwide network working to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The aim is to provide a coherent picture of environmental and Earth observation in Europe by combining existing Earth observation assets and initiatives. Fundamental to this is the provision of in-situ data for calibration and validation purposes which was emphasized several times during a recent EuroGEO workshop.eLTER was represented at t...
16 December 2018
The ESFRI 2018 Roadmap identifies new Research Infrastructures (RI) of pan-European priority and, as announced previously, eLTER RI is among them. These new research infrastructures will be designed to meet the long term needs of European research communities.
eLTER RI's inclusion on the ESFRI Roadmap is a significant achievement for the European ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological research communities. It paves the way for the further development and formalization of eLTER RI, the...
25 September 2018
On 25th September, representatives of major Irish institutions in the environmental research and monitoring domain along with an eLTER delegation held an "LTER Ireland" exploratory meeting in Waterford, Ireland.The Irish team had invited John Watkins & Mike Brown (eLTER IT core team, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK) and Michael Mirtl (European and global LTER chair) to present and discuss LTER and specifically eLTER Research Infrastructure implementation plans in Europe.The half-day m...
9 September 2018
We are pleased to announce that the pan-European eLTER Research Infrastructure (eLTER RI) has been included on the ESFRI 2018 roadmap. This is a significant achievement for the European ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological research communities. It paves the way for the further development and formalization of eLTER RI. The eLTER ESFRI process is led by the German Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in close cooperation with the Environment Agency Austria (EAA) and with sup...
1 August 2018
In his article, Prof. Kulmala (University of Helsinki) argues that grand challenges such as climate change, water and food security and urban air pollution, despite being linked, are typically studied separately. Specifically, observations of the interactions between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere are poorly linked, with few coupled observations made by satellites and ground stations. Vast areas of the globe are barely sampled at all. "The result is a cacophony of information that yields...
13 June 2018
At the GEO Symposium plenary this week (World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, 11-12 June 2018), Michael Mirtl presented ILTER and eLTER. In the session addressing gaps in the coordination of in-situ terrestrial observations, speakers reported on their network's data, main user communities and envisaged benefits from improved coordination of the in-situ component of GEO.
Michael described the data services that the European LTER (eLTER) is taking the lead in developing. He also explaine...
10 June 2018
One of the objectives of the eLTER Horizon 2020 project is to evaluate the performance of LTSER platforms. Recently published research reflects part of this evaluation: six LTSER platforms were assessed through site visits, coupled with the reflections and insights of the platform managers.
A new paper in the journal Environmental Research Letters presents the result of an assessment of six Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) p...
14 April 2018
In light of the eLTER Research Infrastructure (RI) being accepted on the ESFRI roadmap, the organisers of a recent workshop are keen to share their workshop report. Their workshop, which was called ‘Little Data, Big Data, No Data? Data Management in the Era of Research Infrastructures,’ was one of the initial steps in Finland towards being able to contribute data to the eLTER RI.
The data workshop was an outcome of the collaboration between the Academy of Finland funded MULTICS project (PI He...
23 October 2017
Dr Michael Mirtl, Chair of eLTER and ILTER, is attending the event, along with representatives from related European environmental research infrastructures (RIs). On Monday 23rd, he spoke about European and global long-term ecosystem research (LTER) site networks during a side event coordinated by the ENVRIplus EU project.During his talk, Dr Mirtl explained the potential for in situ LTER sites and networks to contribute to earth observation and remote sensing, including to initiatives such as Eu...
13 May 2017
Earlier this year, 23 projects were approved for funding via eLTER H2020’s first call for Transnational Access project proposals. Many of these research trips have now taken place, and several of the researchers and site managers involved have written blog posts about their experiences. We’ve teamed up with the US-based SSALTER blogs (Short Stories About Long-Term Research), which provides a great platform for hosting the articles. So far we’ve received stories from:
Whim, a Scottish bog,...
11 November 2016
The International Long-Term Ecological Research network (ILTER) represents the global umbrella for the formal LTER-Europe Regional Group. ILTER has been formally accepted as a Participating Organisation of GEO, the global Group on Earth Observations, following an application by ILTER’s chair, Michael Mirtl. Barbara Ryan, Secretariat Director of GEO was so impressed by ILTER’s global network of sites and their documentation in DEIMS that she encouraged ILTER to apply for GEO participant status. F...