News
2 November 2023
Access Ecological Research Sites for free!Are you a scientist working in the areas of biodiversity, biogeochemistry, hydrology or socio-ecological research? Do you want to study the natural environment at one of our well-equipped research sites? 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 (Trans...
30 October 2023
A scientific paper in Nature Communications acknowledges the eLTER PLUS project. It has been developed in cooperation with forestREplot, which is a database of long-term forest herb layer data of European broadleaf forests also including a couple of LTER Europe sites (e.g. LTER Zöbelboden in Austria). The paper combines vegetation resurveys from 52 sites across 13 European countries to test how changes in ungulate herbivory and eutrophication drive long-term changes in forest understorey co...
17 October 2023
In their paper 'The recovery of European freshwater biodiversity has come to a halt', eLTER researchers, in collaboration with a large international team, examine the state and development of invertebrate biodiversity in European rivers. In their study, published in the renowned journal 'Nature', the authors show that biodiversity in river systems from 22 European countries has increased significantly over a period from 1968 to 2020. However, these increases occurred mainly prior to 2010 and, un...
17 October 2023
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich is looking for a Scientific researcher (m/f/x) to assess the risk of Amazon rainforest dieback in models. The scientific researcher will be part of the Horizon Europe project ”ClimTip". Large-scale Earth system tipping events could have severe consequences for climate, ecosystems and society. ClimTip combines paleoclimate, observational and model data to identify tipping elements and early-warning signals. In close collaboration with Prof. Niklas B...
17 October 2023
The Department of Environmental Science at Aarhus University (AU-ENVS), Roskilde Denmark, invites applications for a 2-year position as postdoc in aerosol properties and Aerosol Cloud Interaction (ACI). The position is to be filled by January 1, 2024 or as soon as possible thereafter. This is subject to negotiation.This position is part of the project Clouds and climate transitioning to post-fossil aerosol regime (CleanCloud) funded under the Horizon Europe framework. The aim of the project is t...
16 October 2023
A 3-week free online course on air quality entitled “Air pollution: causes and impacts” is open for registration and will start on 6 November 2023.The course shares the basics of air pollution and its effects. You will be able to study in an entirely self-paced format and will have the possibility to start the course almost all along the year. During the first week, you will discover the major causes of outdoor and indoor air pollution. The next two weeks detail the environmental, economic and h...
13 October 2023
From 2-5 October 2023, the Sites and Platform Forum (SPF) meeting brought together 67 participants from 19 countries in sunny Austria at Wassercluster Lunz. This was the first time that this critical internal eLTER stakeholder group met face-to-face to get to know each other, to learn about the recent developments of the eLTER ESFRI process so far and to give feedback & input on the future steps in the process.Over the four days various topics were covered with themes that ranged from the eL...
12 October 2023
ACTRIS Science Conference 2024 is looking for contributions on the topics covering all aspects of ACTRIS scientific activities. The conference will take place from 13 – 16 May 2024 in Rennes, France and will allow scientists to get together physically for the first time. More information is available here.Deadline for abstract submission is 7 December 2023 using dedicated templates.
19 September 2023
From 12-15 September the Annual GfÖ Meeting, which is an international conference hosted by the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland took place in Leipzig (Germany). More than 1 100 participants from more than 30 countries attended the conference. One of the 60 thematic sessions was dedicated to "Infrastructures and Networks in Biodiversity Research", a perfect frame for introducing the European eLTER Research Infrastructure. To attract people, the eLTER talk was titled "e...
1 September 2023
The Digital Forest Lab at Laval University, Canada offers a Postdoctoral Scholar Position in the area of forest ecosystem modelling at flux sites from ground lidar.The position involves field work using ground lidar instruments and computer modeling at deciduous and conifer forest flux tower sites in the USA and Canada. The candidate will be responsible in acquiring and processing ground lidar data, the analysis, the interpretation of field data, and writing of scientific papers. The successful...
4 May 2022
The National Emission reduction Commitments Directive (NEC-D) sets national emission reduction commitments for Member States and the EU for five important air pollutants: nitrogen oxides (NOx), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), sulphur dioxide (SO2), ammonia (NH3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5).These pollutants contribute to poor air quality, leading to significant negative impacts on human health and the environment. Nitrogen and ozone affect ecosystems and biodiversity thro...
2 May 2022
A proposal for the world's first science national park is currently being considered by the Finnish government. The 4800 ha park would be situated within southern Finland's Lammi LTER and aims to strengthen scientific activities in the area as well as serve as a platform for the general public and scientists to interact.The Evo area has a rich history of scientific research dating back over a century and has been the site of intense ecological research and monitoring for many decades. With almos...
12 April 2022
In 2021 the Netherlands Long-Term Ecosystem Research Network (LTER-NL) was included in the list of Large Scale Research Infrastructure (LSRI) by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).This means that LTER-NL is now recognized as a LSRI and can apply for funding within the Dutch system. We therefore put in a large grant earlier this month where LTER-NL teams up with LifeWatch-NL and with a national scheme that monitors abiotic environmental variables (NemNet).Making use of the...
6 April 2022
The Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Gothenburg is looking for an Associate Senior Lecturer in Ecosystem Science. The Department trains Earth scientists and geographers, who can meet the increased need for geoscientists and geographers in society. It has bachelor and master programs in Earth Sciences and in Geography as well as third-cycle education in several Earth Science subjects. Its main research themes are “Climate and Climate Change”, “Earth Surface Processes” and “The Ge...
4 April 2022
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 pa...
9 March 2022
The upcoming 2022 Alternet Conference on the topic of "Transformative Changes for Biodiversity and Health" announced its call for abstracts. If you would like to apply, send the following information by email to secretariat@alterneteurope.eu.TitleAuthorsPresenting authorsInstitutionAbstract(max 600 words)Session choice (choose from session themesbelow):Biodiversity and Ecological HealthBiodiversity and Human HealthTransforming Food Systems Lock-ins and levers to re-localize food syst...
28 February 2022
ILTER OSM Kunming, China, 12-15 September 2022, calls for abstracts. Deadline for abstract submission is 31 May 2022.Please note that you will have to register for the conference in addition to submitting this abstract. Registration will open soon on the conference website.The meeting will take place as a hybrid conference (both in-person and remote participation possible). The conference will likely run from 9-17 CST (China standard time, UTC + 8) each day.General Themes: A Sensitivity, me...
5 January 2022
The German Research Foundation (DFG) is establishing a new Collaborative Research Centre (CRC). In the CRC “Regional Climate Change: The Role of Land Use and Water Management”, researchers are investigating the hypothesis that human-induced land use change and intensified water management also influence regional climate – leading to unintended changes in the natural regional water and energy cycle.Phenomena such as droughts or increasing precipitation are attributed to global warming and th...
5 January 2022
The Academy of Finland will continue funding the Finnish research infrastructures. The INAR RI consortia "Integrated Atmospheric and Earth System Research Infrastructure: Integrated observations for effective climate solutions in terrestrial ecosystems" has received funding of 3.7 M€ for the 2022–2025 period.The funding will support research in several fields: meteorology and atmospheric sciences, climate research, environmental science, forest sciences and ecology, evolutionary biology and ecop...
4 January 2022
A joint Citizen Science (CS) initiative is being developed within the well-known iNaturalist network to create an umbrella project that will promote long-term biodiversity data registration. This initiative aims to have an impact on the eLTER network, both at a local scale, by strengthening the relationship between citizens living in LTSER areas and the researchers and managers who operate them, and at a European scale, by strengthening the interaction between platforms.Individual projects will...
2 February 2023
The Karst Research Institute at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) is the leading partner of the LTER Slovenia consortium which belongs to eLTER. Within the consortium, multidisciplinary research focuses on karst areas, regions characterized by water-soluble rocks, which results in the absence of water at the surface, as water flows mainly underground through fractures.On the surface, the most characteristic karst landforms are karst plateaus and various...
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
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...
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
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...
23 January 2023
Between 29 November and 1 December, eLTER held its first hybrid Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and Steering Committees (SC) meeting in Berlin. 25 members of the SC and 5 members of the SAB met physically at the Berlin Office of the Helmholtz Association joined by 60online participants from research performing organisations during a dedicated half day info session.Michel Mirtl, co-coordinator of eLTER, opened the meeting with the followinginspiring words:“This meeting marks a milestone in severa...
19 January 2023
On 17-18 January the eLTER coordination, National Coordinators and site managers from Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK gathered in Brussels to discuss current developments in their national networks.The meeting proved to be a great opportunity to identify common challenges and exchange experiences with pushing forward national processes towards establishing eLTER. Moreover, the participants were thoroughly updated on the current status of eLTER from a European perspective.“It was a u...
14 October 2022
The ICOS ERIC (Integrated Carbon Observation System RI) organised its fifth Science conference on September 13 to 15, 2022 in Utrecht, Netherlands. Among the highly interesting scientific talks were presentations from three eLTER researchers, in the session ‘Informing transformative change towards a sustainable future using integrated environmental research infrastructures’.Research infrastructures such as ICOS have significantly improved quantification of ecosystem greenhouse gas (GHG) balances...
12 October 2022
The Early Career & Friends (EC&F) group was established after the Integrated Progress Meeting on Mallorca in May 2022. The group includes scientists, technicians, administrators and other professionals who are actively engaged in eLTER work and who identify themselves as early career (EC), new to eLTER, or otherwise interested in the goals of the group (& Friends).With the support of the eLTER Head Office, this group aims to support EC work by promoting professional collaborations, p...
10 October 2022
The Covid-19 pandemic provides an extraordinary opportunity to investigate socio-ecological system resilience by comparing systems undergoing the same shocks at the same time. This research explores resilience, or a society’s capacity to endure external shocks/stress like pandemics or climate change, through the lens of social ecology, a discipline that studies the interconnections between society and its natural environment, viewing them as a single, holistic system.To discover what characteris...
13 February 2023
Berchtesgaden National Park is Germany's only national park in the Alps. It offers unique opportunities for research on mountain landscapes and their natural dynamics. Particularly relevant research topics include species conservation, ecosystem dynamics, long-term ecological monitoring across trophic levels, and learning from protected areas for ecosystem management. Research and monitoring in Berchtesgaden National Park is led by Prof. Rupert Seidl, Chair of Ecosystem Dynamics and Forest Manag...
6 February 2023
Atmospheric pollution is associated with demonstrated health and climate issues. Our understanding of the sources and transformation processes are confronted with the chemical complexity of the particulate phase, and more particularly of its organic fraction. The metrological limits of the instruments commonly used in the various observatories therefore deprive us of a complete vision of the mechanisms involved.Indeed, it has been recently underlined that in Paris, for instance, around 80% of or...
6 February 2023
The ESA EarthCARE Team is looking for a young graduate trainee to undertake an investigation into the EarthCARE mission. EarthCARE’s objective is to investigate the interaction between clouds, aerosols and radiation, providing global profiles of clouds, aerosols and precipitation along with co-located radiative flux measurements. The data will be used to evaluate the representation of these constituents in weather forecasting and climate models. The payload consists of the ATmospheric LIDar...
1 February 2023
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, is looking for a PostDoc (2 years) or PhD student (3 years) in ground-based remote sensing of low-level clouds and fog in the context of the European Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS) project. The successful candidate will work with state-of-the-art ground-based remote sensing instrumentation and collaborate locally and in the wider ACTRIS network. Learn more and apply here.
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...
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 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.
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...
20 January 2023
The Faculty of Geosciences - Department of Geography at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München is looking for a Scientific researcher modeling Earth system feedbacks.The chair for Physical Geography and Land Use Systems (Prof. Julia Pongratz) at LMU’s Department of Geography investigates the interactions between natural ecosystems, land use and climate change. Its group develops and applies the latest generation of land and Earth system models and integrates them with observations. Key resea...
7 December 2022
Through cutting-edge research in the fields of ENERGY, HEALTH and MATTER, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) solves some of the pressing societal and industrial challenges of our time. Join our 1.500 employees from more than 50 nations at one of our six research sites and help us moving research to the next level!The Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) is a German-Polish research center for data-intensive digital systems research. CASUS was founded in 2019 in Görlitz and c...