News
13 May 2024
Are you ready to contribute to cutting-edge environmental research? The eLTER Science Conference will take place from 23 to 27 June 2025 in Tampere, Finland and we are seeking your expertise! We're thrilled to announce the call for both scientific sessions and workshops to enrich our upcoming conference experience.Call for Sessions:We're inviting proposals for scientific sessions covering a broad spectrum of topics, from disciplinary research to systems syntheses and recommendations. Whether you...
1 May 2024
From 9-12 April 2024, the eLTER General Executive Team (GET) gathered at the LTER Biologische Station Neusiedler See, close to Lake Neusiedl in Illmitz, Austria. This meeting served as a pivotal opportunity for the GET members to convene in person and meet the new members who have joined the team in the last months.Throughout the retreat, GET members engaged in active discussions, exploring challenges and opportunities on the horizon. A highlight of the gathering was a card game designed to...
15 April 2024
The University of Michigan Institute for Global Change Biology (UM-IGCB) in collaboration with the Utah State University (USU) is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to lead an exciting project assessing the causes and consequences of lagging ecological community responses to climate change. The candidate will analyse and synthesise global change experiments and observations, with a focus on the plant communities and ecosystem acclimation to climate change. This position offers a unique...
10 April 2024
The One Forest Vision Initiative is a new research programme between African countries and France launched in 2023 with a duration of five years, aiming to monitor changes of central african rainforests for height, biomass and diversity, in order to better understand the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic pressure on these diverse and important ecosystems, and provide science-based knowledge to protect and restore forests in the region. As part of the initiative, two research posit...
1 April 2024
From 13 - 14 March 2024, the newly formed eLTER Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Team met in person to discuss the agile development of eLTER CI components at a workshop in Vienna. The distributed team is composed of experts from BSI (Serbia), CNR (Italy), CSC (Finland), EAA (Austria), MUNI (Czech Republic), UFZ (Germany), UH (Finland), and UNITY (Germany). The team main responsibility will be to develop CI components for and across the three eLTER projects PPP, PLUS, and Enrich. Sprint planning will st...
14 March 2024
eLTER actively participated in the annual Helmholtz Topic 5 meeting titled “Landscape of the Future – Securing Terrestrial Ecosystems and Freshwater Resources under Natural Dynamics and Global Change”, held at the UFZ premises in Leipzig on 5-6 March 2024. This was the first meeting of all four participating Helmholtz centres: AWI, HEREON, GFZ and UFZ.During the meeting, eLTER showcased a poster presentation focusing on 'eLTER Standard Observations as a blueprint for internationalisation of in-s...
11 March 2024
Mark your calendars: A major eLTER event will take place in June 2025! Tampere in Finland will host the first eLTER Science Conference on 23-27 June 2025; a full week of keynote lectures, oral and poster sessions, exhibitions, workshops and field trips to exchange and engage in scientific dialogue about the Whole Systems Approach that is so unique to eLTER RI. The conference addresses researchers and peers from Europe and globally.In the Anthropocene, research is challenged to develop a more hol...
10 March 2024
From March 2024, eLTER receives additional financial support from the eLTER EnRich project. This 3-year, EUR 1.5M Horizon Europe project will bridge the gap between the preparatory and operational phases of the eLTER ESFRI process, which have been severely constrained by various adverse force-majeure factors (including the COVID pandemic) since the start of the eLTER PPP and PLUS projects in 2020. EnRich will take eLTER to the operational phase by streamlining RI design, taking eLTERs cyberinfra...
8 March 2024
An innovative tool is being developed by a collaborative team from the University of Helsinki and UFZ, including Allan T. Souza, Steffen Zacharias, Syed Alam, Terhi Rasilo, and Jaana Bäck, to efficiently calculate the costs associated with Standard Observations (SOs) at eLTER sites. This is an exciting new development for the eLTER community as it represents a significant step forward in enhancing the precision and efficiency of environmental research management.This tool, crafted using R S...
8 March 2024
Restore4Life* just announced its Call for Associated Regions!The Call seeks at least 5 Associated Regions** to provide them with technical assistance for utilising Restore4Life's outcomes and knowledge to prepare roadmaps, plans, and projects for wetland ecosystem restoration in their territory. This will involve the twinning of each Associated Region with a similar demonstration site and the provision of technical advisory services necessary to prepare roadmaps, plans and projects to restore ec...
31 July 2023
The advanced course "Use of Technology in Field Biology '' took place between 6-9 June 2023 at Herdade da Ribeira Abaixo (HRA), one of the sites included in the Portuguese LTsER Montado platform. This course focused on the use of technological tools, which are increasingly employed in the collection of animal ecology field data, mainly due to the development of equipment that allows for automatic recording and storage of environmental information. The students received training on the use o...
25 July 2023
Representing the eLTER RI socio-ecological team, Daniel Orenstein and Merav Cohen from the Israel Institute of Technology traveled to Taiwan in April/May to learn about the Taiwanese experience in establishing LTSER platforms*.Taiwan’s three platforms (with a fourth in development) were established under the leadership of Prof. Teng-Chiu Lin and with the support of Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). The platforms span diverse socio-ecological systems, including an island su...
25 July 2023
Digital Twins (DTs) started in industry to monitor and understand systems and processes, but they have now also become a hot topic in ecology. In a new paper (De Koning et al. 2023), they describe how DTs can help ecology, as a kind of real-time model that can integrate data and domain knowledge to continuously adapt to the real world.The study aims to clarify potential misunderstandings, as they are not necessarily artificial intelligence, large interconnected databases, and a synonym...
24 July 2023
The Portuguese LTsER Montado platform currently has several active research projects:- Project RENEWAL aims tot promote the resilience of agroforestry systems in drylands to a more arid future, ensuring ecosystem functions and services. It addresses climate change effects on oak woodlands (montados), semi-natural agroforestry systems of high ecological and socio-economic importance, that are an important ecosystem type southern Portugal. Montados are highly vulnerable to climate change and are c...
24 July 2023
Prof. Dr. Harry Vereecken has been awarded the 2023 Alfred Wegener Medal & Honorary Membership for his groundbreaking contributions to soil-plant-atmosphere research with a focus on subsurface processes related to the hydrological and biochemical cycles. Not only has he greatly advanced the specific research on the subject, but perhaps more importantly, he has been an integrator of connecting the individual sub-processes and sub-disciplines.In an interview he gave for eLTER regarding his awa...
18 July 2023
The scientific term succession describes the mechanisms by which inanimate or disturbed areas are colonised by living organisms. In the Rotmoos valley near Obergurgl, such succession studies have been carried out for decades. The glacier that originally dominated the valley has been melting for over 150 years, releasing areas for recolonisation.As a result, this open-air laboratory continues to reveal new findings. In a long-term study carried out by a group of researchers at the University of I...
21 April 2023
Citizen science (CS) is one the most promising forms of public engagement and it has huge potential to support science-society interactions with mutual benefits.Environmental and ecological sciences are among the most active in proposing CS initiatives, since they necessarily include social and cultural dimensions to confront the complex local and global environmental challenges. This aspect is particularly evident in the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network, which offers...
1 March 2023
Christian Körner et al. have prepared a five-year synthesis of a multidisciplinary, highly standardized, long-term monitoring programme of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the Austrian Hohe Tauern National Park and companion sites in northern Italy (Val Mazia/Matschertal, LTER site) and the central Swiss Alps (Alpine Research and Education Station Furka, ALPFOR, LTER site). The sites form a tri-national long term monitoring network in the Alpine and exemplify the wide geographical coverage...
7 February 2023
The cross-border project SIMILE (Italian acronym for “System for the Integrated Monitoring of Insubric Lakes and their Ecosystems”) financed within the Interreg Italy-Switzerland Cooperation Programme 2014-2020, is coming to an end. SIMILE focused on three subalpine lakes, two of which, Maggiore and Como, belonging to the LTER Italy network.The project’s general objectives were the improvement of lake monitoring and the strengthening of the coordinated management of water through an intensificat...
6 February 2023
The LTSER Sabor site in the Northeast of Portugal has been participating in the LIFEPLAN project for the last two years. LIFEPLAN is coordinated by Helsinki University, with several partners across the world aiming to assess the global diversity of a wide diversity of terrestrial taxa, including birds, mammals, insects, plants, and fungi.Using the most recent advances in sampling methods, as well as in molecular, bioinformatic, bioacoustics and statistical analysis, the project aims to set the s...
11 March 2024
Mark your calendars: A major eLTER event will take place in June 2025! Tampere in Finland will host the first eLTER Science Conference on 23-27 June 2025; a full week of keynote lectures, oral and poster sessions, exhibitions, workshops and field trips to exchange and engage in scientific dialogue about the Whole Systems Approach that is so unique to eLTER RI. The conference addresses researchers and peers from Europe and globally.In the Anthropocene, research is challenged to develop a more hol...
10 March 2024
From March 2024, eLTER receives additional financial support from the eLTER EnRich project. This 3-year, EUR 1.5M Horizon Europe project will bridge the gap between the preparatory and operational phases of the eLTER ESFRI process, which have been severely constrained by various adverse force-majeure factors (including the COVID pandemic) since the start of the eLTER PPP and PLUS projects in 2020. EnRich will take eLTER to the operational phase by streamlining RI design, taking eLTERs cyberinfra...
8 March 2024
An innovative tool is being developed by a collaborative team from the University of Helsinki and UFZ, including Allan T. Souza, Steffen Zacharias, Syed Alam, Terhi Rasilo, and Jaana Bäck, to efficiently calculate the costs associated with Standard Observations (SOs) at eLTER sites. This is an exciting new development for the eLTER community as it represents a significant step forward in enhancing the precision and efficiency of environmental research management.This tool, crafted using R S...
7 March 2024
As eLTER becomes embedded in the European RI landscape, it contributes to more and more projects that involve other RIs and research institutions within its scope and mission, each an opportunity for eLTER to contribute, learn, and network. We will introduce projects eLTER is involved in over the next newsletters, so watch this space for news and updates!eLTER contributes to the project BioDT – Biodiversity Digital Twin. This 3-year Horizon Europe project - started in June 2022 - aims to develop...
6 March 2024
An operational RI requires a sustainable business plan and an in-depth understanding of its impact on different stakeholder groups. For this purpose, 2023 eLTER launched a tender for Business Plan and Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) Framework development services in summer. The procurement was successfully concluded in December 2023 and, after a competitive selection process, the contract was awarded to the Finland-based company Gaia Consulting. In close collaboration and regular consult...
5 March 2024
The TDWG 2023 Conference (Oct 9th-13th 2023) took place in the city of Hobart, Tasmania, offering an exciting opportunity for scientists working with biodiversity informatics to come together and explore the latest advancements in biodiversity data management and standards.Hanna Koivula (CSC) participated on behalf of eLTER PLUS, BioDT and FAIRCORE4EOSC projects, and highlighted the opportunities and means to integrate biodiversity data with other cross-disciplinary data by using standards, voca...
4 January 2024
The Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Helsinki is inviting applications for two staff scientist (hereafter: university researcher) positions for a five-year contract, starting as soon as possible or from 1 March 2024 onwards.The application deadline for both positions is 31 January 2024.Position 1: A university researcher at SMEAR-Agri station (Station for Measuring Ecosystem-Atmosphere Relations) with the main task of being responsible for the station’s long-ter...
27 November 2023
At the beginning of November 2023, eLTER announced its 4th call for funded Transnational Access (TA) and Remote Access (RA) for scientists working in the areas of biodiversity, biogeochemistry, hydrology or socio-ecological research.The eLTER PLUS project opens up the eLTER Sites and Platforms for small and medium size research projects from various disciplines. Through the Access Scheme you can visit one or several of 43 long-term research sites in 19 European Countries (Transnational Acce...
8 November 2023
The sixth eLTER PPP Interim Council meeting was held from 24 - 26 October 2023 in Berlin, Germany with the charismatic chairing of Kevin Bishop (SLU, Sweden). This hybrid event brought together around 50 participants – 28 attended in person in Berlin and 20 joined online. Among the attendees were the national Interim Council delegates from 17 countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switz...
7 November 2023
The General Assembly 2024 of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will be held at the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) in Vienna, Austria and online, from 14–19 April 2024. We will organise the following session:BG8.14: Integrated solutions for landscape management of GHG balance and biodiversity in a changing environmentConvener: Syed Ashraful Alam, Katri Rankinen, Thomas Dirnböck, Harry Vereecken, Olga VinduškováThe session is co-sponsored by eLTER.The abstract submission deadline is Wedn...
3 January 2024
The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, seeks to appoint a Full Professor of Forest Ecology from 1 October 2024. The position is offered in accordance with §98 of the 2002 Universities Act in the form of an ongoing contract.The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, the "Alma Mater Viridis”, is the University of Sustainability and Life Sciences. It is BOKU's task to make a key contribution to the conservati...
2 January 2024
Do you like looking at clouds and you want to understand them? Then this position might be for you. The Delft University of Technology has opened an academic tenure track position for the study of clouds using the observational and modelling facilities of the Ruisdael Observatory in the Netherlands. They offer the opportunity to develop your own research line and academic career in atmospheric sciences with the focus on clouds and their significance for weather and climate. You will co-develop e...
18 December 2023
On 15 February 2024, de.NBI and FAIRagro organise a workshop for anyone working with agro-system science data, interested in active learning, and gaining skills in both research data management and writing Data Management Plans. The tile of the workshop is 'Maximizing the Potential of Agricultural Research Data: A Guide to Crafting an Effective Data Management Plan', providing a mix of presentations and interactive exercises.The workshop will show you how a DMP can help to facilitate day-to-day...
4 December 2023
The 6th ATMO Transnational Access call is open until 31 January 2024 and focuses on multidisciplinary projects, which go beyond the strict atmospheric research. It is a unique opportunity to access 60 of the leading European atmospheric research facilities. Applicants must be affiliated to an organisation in a country other than the country where the site they wish to access is located.The call also offers remote and/or hybrid access - users can conduct a research project without the need to vis...
29 November 2023
INERIS is the French national expert institution in terms of environmental risks. Its mission is to contribute to the prevention of risks caused by economic activities to health, environment, and the safety of people and goods. As part of its research activities and support to public authorities, the unit ANAE develops analytical procedures for the characterisation of various environmental matrices including air. Its research activities are strongly linked to its implication in the French nation...
27 November 2023
The Center for Volatile Interactions (VOLT) in Copenhagen, Denmark announced the following two open positions:A 3-year PhD fellowship in Volatile Organic Compound exchange in freshwater ecosystemsWho is it for? An enthusiastic and ambitious candidate with an MSc degree in biology/ecology/ microbiology, geosciences, chemistry or similar fields obtained before the initiation of the PhD position. Experience with limnology, gas exchange measurements, VOC analytical techniques, isotope...
20 November 2023
University of Basel is offering 2 positions for PhD students and 1 for a postdoc. They are as follows:PhD fellowship in Plant DiversityApplicants should have a Master degree in Plant Systematics or Ecology and expertise in identifying plant species in the field. Furthermore, you should be eager to work in the field, do experiments, and to become proficient in statistical analysis.PhD fellowship in Plant Evolutionary Ecology/Selection acting in NatureThe fellowship is for applicants who have a Ma...
7 November 2023
The Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences offers a PhD position on how wetland restoration effects the formation and mobilisation of methylmercury in forest surface waters. The PhD student will use both geochemical and microbiological methods to assess the effect of wetland restoration on the mercury cycling and will be part of a newly started research program involving a collaborative interdisciplinary research team.Read more about the...
6 November 2023
The Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, the Institute of Energy and the Environment, and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute of The Pennsylvania State University invite applications for a tenure-track faculty position in climate science with emphasis on solutions and societal impacts at the rank of Assistant Professor.They seek an atmospheric or oceanic scientist whose research will advance climate science and who is motivated by the need to address the wide-ranging and...
3 November 2023
The Global Change Research Institute – CzechGlobe focuses on issues of environmental sciences, and in particular on the problem of global climate change (GCC), which by its nature and possible consequences extends beyond the basic thematic segments of atmosphere, ecosystem, and socio-economic system. GCC has become an ecological, sociological and technical problem of the present with a global impact, the solution of which requires profound expert knowledge.Currently, CzechGlobe has two open post...