International Long-Term Ecological Research Research Articles

Scientists’ attitudes about citizen science at Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites

A profound transformation, in recent decades, is promoting shifts in the ways ecological science is produced and shared; as such, ecologists are increasingly encouraged to engage in dialogues with multiple stakeholders and in transdisciplinary research. Among the different forms of public engagement, citizen science (CS) has significant potential to support science-society interactions with mutual benefits. While many studies have focused on the experience and motivations of CS volunteers, scarce literature investigating the perspectives of researchers is available. The main purpose of this paper is to better understand scientists’ attitudes about CS in the context of its potential to support outcomes that extent beyond more traditional ones focused on promoting science knowledge and interest. We surveyed the scientific community belonging to the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network because ILTER is of interest to multiple stakeholders and occurs over long time scales. Via an online questionnaire, we asked ILTER scientists about their willingness to participate in different types of public engagement, their reasons for participating in CS, the associated barriers, and any impacts of these efforts on them. Our findings show that many ILTER scientists are open to participating in CS for a wide range of reasons; the dominant ones involve deeper public engagement and collaboration. The barriers of greatest concern of these respondents were the lack of institutional support to start and run a CS project and the difficulty of establishing long-term stable relationships with the public. They reported impacts of CS activities on how they pursue their work and acknowledged the benefit of opportunities to learn from the public. The emerging picture from this research is of a community willing and actively involved in many CS projects for both traditional reasons, such as data gathering and public education, and expanded reasons that activate a real two-way cooperation with the public. In the ILTER community, CS may thus become an opportunity to promote and develop partnerships with citizens, helping to advance the science-society interface and to rediscover and enhance the human and social dimension of the scientific work.

Environmental citizen science practices in the ILTER community: Remarks from a case study at global scale

In the last decades, citizen science (CS) has experienced an increasing interest as a practice in which scientists and citizens collaborate to produce new knowledge for science, society and policy. Environmental and ecological sciences are among the most active in proposing CS activities and new models for citizen participation in research. In addition to environmental dimensions, these fields necessarily include social and cultural dimensions to confront the complex local and global environmental challenges. This is particularly evident in the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network, where the integration of social sciences has become a recognized priority. ILTER offers a valuable landscape to explore common CS features across a wide range of different cultural and socio-ecological contexts, as well as worldviews of science-society interactions. In 2020, we surveyed scientists working at ILTER sites across the globe to identify key features of CS initiatives in which they are/were involved and the levels of participation of the volunteers. We consider these features in the context of the internationally-developed “Ten Principles of Citizen Science” by examining scientific outcomes and societal/policy impact, type of volunteers’ involvement, and sharing of data/findings and feedbacks and acknowledging volunteers. Our results indicate that the ILTER community demonstrated a good predisposition toward environmentally-focused CS initiatives with diverse scientific questions including biodiversity, water quality, ecosystem services and climate change. Most of the respondents reported that the volunteers were involved mainly in collecting samples or recording data; some other activities, such as dissemination of the project conclusions and discussion and translation of the results into action, were also mentioned. Volunteers were usually trained for these initiatives and acknowledged in peer-reviewed publication, however data from the initiatives were only partially shared openly. We conclude with remarks and suggestions for expanding design and implementation of CS in the ILTER community.

A long-term (1986-2010) phytoplankton dataset from the LTER-Italy site Lake Candia

In this paper we describe a 25-year (1986-2010) dataset of phytoplankton cell density abundance and biovolume in Lake Candia, a eutrophic, natural, small, and shallow lake located in north-western Italy, with data that are made available through the GBIF repository. The lake belongs to the national (LTER-Italy), European (LTER-Europe) and International (ILTER) long-term ecological research (LTER) networks. Phytoplankton samples were collected approximately monthly at the maximum depth station of the lake (7.7 m) and analysed with the inverted microscope, estimating both the cell density abundance and biovolume of each taxon. The dataset includes 10,120 georeferenced occurrences related to 545 taxa. During this 25-year period, the lake underwent profound modifications mainly related to the lake biomanipulation activities addressed to the management of aquatic macrophyte and to the evolution of the trophic condition. Making this dataset available represents a contribution to the current activities of the LTER networks for defining and reconstructing spatial and temporal dynamics and to identify and compare reliable trends.

Littoral chironomids and oligochaetes in the subalpine Lake Maggiore: a first dataset

A dataset of 227 oligochaetes and 373 chironomids occurrence records from the subalpine Lake Maggiore, a large and deep temperate lake in Northern-Western Italy and Switzerland was developed within the Interreg Italy-Switzerland 2014-2020 Parchi Verbano Ticino Project (ID:481668) funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The lake belongs to the national (LTER-Italy), European (LTER-Europe) and International (ILTER) long-term ecological research networks. Data were collected during the summer-autumn period in 2019-2021. Chironomids (Insecta, Diptera) and oligochaetes (Annelida, Clitellata) were identified to genus/species gr./species level by the authors. All 600 occurrence records are georeferenced and organised in a standardised Darwin Core Archive format. These data gathered along the littoral areas of Lake Maggiore will contribute to the development of common implementation strategies for shared and sustainable water management level of the lake, with particular reference to the protected natural areas (sites belonging to Natura 2000 network in Italy and to the Emerald Network in Switzerland). The authors strongly believe in the great potential of open access occurrence records in biogeographical studies and ecological research in the context of global environmental changes. For that reason, the dataset has been uploaded to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an intergovernmental free and open access biodiversity data infrastructure.

An evaluation of freshwater monitoring programs in ILTER nodes and mountain national parks: identifying key variables to monitor global change effects

Identifying and quantifying global change impacts on biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems is critical to promote an effective adaptation that increases the success of conservation strategies. To achieve this goal, global and regional assessment efforts require certain degree of harmonization on local monitoring programs to establish relevant comparisons at different spatio-temporal scales. Otherwise, the lack of harmonization might hinder the detection and assessment on the effects of human impacts. In this work we have compiled information on freshwater monitoring programs located in areas of intensive research and conservation interest: International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) nodes and mountain National Parks. We aimed at evaluating the quality and robustness of these programs to assess the impact of global change, addressing from the worldwide to the European and Spanish national scale. Results highlighted that freshwater monitoring programs lack a common strategy to monitor these ecosystems. Even at the continental and national scales, contrasting strategies and level of detail have been historically applied. Water quality, habitat and biodiversity are more commonly monitored than community structure and ecosystem functioning. Monitoring efforts on the Spanish Mountain National parks indicated differences on the targeted aquatic ecosystems. Rivers and lakes received a higher attention, while mires were rarely considered. Our results provide evidence that greater efforts should be directed towards constructing a coordinated strategy to monitor freshwater ecosystems at national, continental, and global scales. This strategy should involve a shared backbone of biophysical and biogeochemical variables for each habitat type on agreed protocols that are implemented across regions and administrative borders. Achieving this will support a substantial advance on the ecological research to further delineate proper conservation strategies to face the challenges imposed by global change.

中国湿地生态站现状、发展趋势及空间布局

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 中国湿地生态站现状、发展趋势及空间布局 DOI: 10.5846/stxb202104130960 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 中国科学院A类战略性先导科技专项（XDA23040203）；国家自然科学基金项目（42171105，41971133）；国家生态系统观测研究共享服务平台建设项目 Current status, development and spatial planning of China's Wetland Ecological Stations Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:湿地调查与监测是全面了解和掌握湿地变化，开展湿地保护和修复的前提和基础。湿地生态站是开展湿地长期监测和野外试验的平台，对研究湿地生态系统过程与功能，揭示湿地变化机理具有重要作用。系统梳理了我国现有的湿地生态站，分析了当前湿地生态站建设中面临的问题，指出：与国际主要生态观测网络相比，我国综合性湿地生态站数量较少、比例偏低，导致在湿地生态系统监测和评估上存在较大空缺；现有生态站存在层级结构不合理、监测指标体系不规范等问题，制约了国家尺度湿地生态系统监测评估的需求。研究基于中国湿地生态站的现状，提出综合性湿地生态站布局原则，认为：应反映湿地生态系统类型代表性及湿地的空间分布特征，体现综合站-区域站-卫星站的层级结构特点，服务国家湿地保护和生态修复的战略需求。按照上述布局原则，对今后综合性湿地生态站的空间布局提出建议。同时，对湿地站发展定位、聚焦的前沿科学问题、湿地联网研究及国际合作方面提出了展望。 Abstract:Wetland survey and monitoring is the prerequisite and foundation for comprehensively understanding and clarifying wetland ecosystem dynamics, and carrying out wetland conservation and restoration. Wetland Ecological Stations provide the platform for long-term wetland observation and in-situ experiments, which are indispensable in studying and revealing the processes, functions, as well as related mechanism of wetland change. There are some problems in the development of wetland ecological stations in China. Compared with the International Long-Term Ecological Research Network, the number and proportion of Wetland Ecological Stations in National Ecological stations are less and there are also some gaps on spatial planning of wetland ecological stations; in addition, wetland ecological stations are not laid out with obvious hierarchical structure (such as Master stations, Regular stations and Satellite stations), and the monitoring indicators and systems for wetland ecological stations are also not standard and uniform, which lead to limitations on monitoring and assessment of wetland ecosystem at national scale. In this study, we summarized and analyzed the status and problems in the development of Wetland Ecological Stations in China, and proposed the planning principles of the National Wetland Ecological Stations in existing National Ecological Stations System. We suggested that it should consider representativeness of wetland ecosystem types and the spatial distribution characteristics of wetlands in China, as well as to take account of the hierarchical structure of wetland stations and their combination to national development strategy and policy demand on wetland conservation and restoration. We proposed some targeted suggestions on spatial planning of China's Wetland Ecological Stations in the future based on the above principles. At the same time, the development orientation of wetland station was determined and the frontier and key scientific issues needing to be focused in the future were discussed, such as the changes of wetland landscape, lake eutrophication and invasive species control, climate change and carbon sequestration mechanism, etc. Finally, how to response to the national development strategy and policy demand was also analyzed. It is proposed to strengthen cooperation with international partners in the fields of biodiversity conservation and monitoring, climate change, transboundary wetlands and the conservation of migratory species. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Assessing the biogeographical and socio-ecological representativeness of the ILTER site network

The challenges posed by climate and land use change are increasingly complex, with rising and accelerating impacts on the global environmental system. Novel environmental and ecosystem research needs to properly interpret system changes and derive management recommendations across scales. This largely depends on advances in the establishment of an internationally harmonised, long-term operating and representative infrastructure for environmental observation. This paper presents an analysis evaluating 743 formally accredited sites of the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network in 47 countries with regard to their spatial distribution and related biogeographical and socio-ecological representativeness. “Representedness” values were computed from six global datasets. The analysis revealed a dense coverage of Northern temperate regions and anthropogenic zones most notably in the US, Europe and East Asia. Significant gaps are present in economically less developed and anthropogenically less impacted hot and barren regions like Northern and Central Africa and inner-continental parts of South America. These findings provide the arguments for our recommendations regarding the geographic expansion for the further development of the ILTER network.

Corrigendum: ILTER – The International Long-Term Ecological Research Network as a Platform for Global Coastal and Ocean Observation

Corrigendum: ILTER – The International Long-Term Ecological Research Network as a Platform for Global Coastal and Ocean Observation

ILTER – The International Long-Term Ecological Research Network as a Platform for Global Coastal and Ocean Observation

Understanding the threats to global biodiversity and ecosystem services posed by human impacts on coastal and marine environments requires the establishment and maintenance of ecological observator ...

Comparison of biological and ecological long-term trends related to northern hemisphere climate in different marine ecosystems

Data from five sites of the International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network in the North-Eastern Pacific, Western Arctic Ocean, Northern Baltic Sea, South-Eastern North Sea and in the Western Mediterranean Sea were analyzed by dynamic factor analysis (DFA) to trace common multi-year trends in abundance and composition of phytoplankton, benthic fauna and temperate reef fish. Multiannual trends were related to climate and environmental variables to study interactions. Two common trends in biological responses were detected, with temperature and climate indices as explanatory variables in four of the five LTER sites considered. Only one trend was observed at the fifth site, the Northern Baltic Sea, where no explanatory variables were identified. Our findings revealed quasi-synchronous biological shifts in the different marine ecosystems coincident with the 2000 climatic regime shift and provided evidence on a possible further biological shift around 2010. The observed biological modifications were coupled with abrupt or continuous increase in sea water and air temperature confirming the key-role of temperature in structuring marine communities.

Feeding Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs): actual and potential contributions from LTER-Italy

The conceptual framework of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) aims to capture the major dimensions of biodiversity change by structuring biodiversity monitoring and by ruling data collection amongst different providers. Amongst the research infrastructures adopting and implementing the EBV framework, LTER-Europe - the European node of ILTER (International Long-Term Ecological Research) - follows the approach to compare site-based biodiversity observations within and across its networks. However, a synoptic overview of their contributions with EBVs-relevant data is still missing, since data are not made available for several reasons. In this paper, we assess the capacity of LTER-Italy, one of the richest and heterogeneous networks of LTER sites in Europe, to provide data to “Species Distribution” and “Species Abundance” EBVs without inspecting and downloading their contents. To this aim, we mine the EBVs information which is publicly structured and shared by LTER site managers through DEIMS-SDR, the LTER-Europe online metadata repository. We classify the sites according to two types of contributions: (i) the actual contribution, based on metadata of datasets and (ii) the potential contribution, based on metadata of sites. Through these assessments, we investigate if LTER-Italy monitoring activities can provide EBVs measures and which sites currently provide datasets. By comparing the two contributions, we pinpoint the factors hampering the accessibility of LTER-Italy data and suggest solutions to increase the discoverability and reusability of LTER-Italy EBVs measurements. The research provides the first overview of EBVs monitored in LTER-Italy and the corresponding data management practices, as well as an evaluation of the interoperability of this network with respect to other research organisations for legal and technical aspects.

Stream benthic macroinvertebrates abundances over a 6-year monitoring period of an Italian glacier-fed stream.

BackgroundAquatic macroinvertebrates are widely used as bioindicators for water quality assessments involving different kinds of disruptive factors, such as hydrological regime variations or pollutant spills. Recently, they demonstrated to be effective in monitoring effects of climate change in alpine stream and rivers. Indeed, since the distribution of macroinvertebrates in glacier-fed streams has been succesfully investigated and described by several authors, the discrepancy in presence/absence and quantity of specific taxa from the established models may represent an early warning of the effects of climatic changes occurring in alpine riverine ecosystems.New informationTogether with the present paper, we provide a dataset covering a period of 6 years (2010-2015) sampling of aquatic macroinvertebrates along a longitudinal transect of a glacier-fed stream located in the Italian Alps, inside the International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) macrosite of Matsch|Mazia (IT-25). Data were collected during the glacial melt period (April - September), with monthly resolution. Owing to the unique temporal resolution of the dataset, we aim to produce a reliable tool (i.e. reference point) for future ecological assessment on the same stream, but also to similar streams worldwide.

Contemporary International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER)—from biogeosciences to socio-ecology and biodiversity research

Long-term ecological research (LTER) has a strong foundation in the fields of biogeosciences and ecosystem research with infrastructures established in the nineteenth (e.g., 1891—Plon, Germany; 1840—Rothamsted, England) and twentieth centuries (e.g., 1906—Lunz, Austria; 1925—Trout Lake Station, WI, USA; 1955—Hubbard Brook, NH, USA; 1960—Solling, Germany). Over time, it has been repeatedly shown that the long-term study of processes has the potential to significantly improve ecological understanding at the ecosystem or larger scales. The international network of LTER sites (ILTER) was established in 1993 and included 28 countries by the turn of the millennium. The geographical spread of LTER sites across the globe has significantly increased since then, and by 2016, 44 countries have established formal LTER programs with approximately 800 LTER sites and 70 Long-term Socio-ecological Research (LTSER) platforms as part of the international network. Stimulated by the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the UN Convention on Biodiversity, research topics at ILTER sites have diversified considerably. Scientists started to address societal processes driving environmental change, as well as feedbacks of environmental changes on society. Furthermore, biodiversity research became an intrinsic part of LTER in many countries initializing the establishment of research infrastructures in ecosystems not yet included (e.g., caves, marine habitats). In October 2016, the ILTER Open Science Meeting in the Kruger National Park, South Africa, gave an impressive overview of the diversity of LTER across the globe today. With this special issue, we aim to present the broad range of research currently conducted across the ILTER network with a collection of papers from different continents and with research topics both classical to LTER and emerging fields of contemporary LTER.

Long-term responses of mountain forests to environmental change in West-Central Mexico

This study is an important contribution to the International Long-term Ecological Research Network (ILTER), because it presents the local responses of soil and plant composition to global and regional climatic oscillations of the last millennia in Mexico. Mountain forests are ecosystems that have been constantly threatened by both anthropogenic and climate disturbances, mainly over the Late Holocene. By using palaeoecological techniques with fossil pollen and geochemical elements as proxies, this study incorporates the relationship of trees, herbs and epiphytes with dry and humid climate events. High-temporal resolution in the chronologies allowed the assessment of vegetation changes (every ~ 30 years) and soil geochemical elements in three forests located close (< 8 km) to each other. Our results showed that pine forest contracted along the dry periods of the Little Ice Age (AD 1350–1850), the Medieval Climate Anomaly (AD 800 to 1200) and the Late Classic Drought (AD 600 to 800). However, it expanded in the humid period (AD 1200 to 1350). Cloud forest was the most susceptible ecosystem to the above climate anomalies; trees contracted in periods of aridity and expanded in humid periods. The signature for the transitional forest was confounding: trees increased partially in both dry and humid periods with a well-correlated decrease in epiphytes. Soil losses were common in dry periods while fires increased along the last ~ 300 years.

Negotiating local versus global needs in the International Long Term Ecological Research Network’s socio-ecological research agenda

Over the past decade, long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER) has been established to better integrate social science research and societal concerns into the goals and objectives of the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network, an established global network of long-term ecological monitoring sites. The Horizon 2020 eLTER project, currently underway, includes as one of its key objectives to evaluate the performance of LTSER platforms. This article reflects part of this evaluation: six LTSER platforms were assessed through site visits of the lead author, coupled with reflections and insights of the platform managers, who are also co-authors. We provide background for the mission and goals of LTSER, then assess the six international LTSER platforms—Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER, USA; Braila Island LTSER, Romania; Cairngorms LTSER, UK; Doñana LTSER, Spain; Omora Ethnobotanical Park Cape Horn LTER, Chile; and Sierra Nevada LTSER, Spain. While based on a strong theoretical foundation in socio-ecological research, there has been a steep learning curve for scientists applying the concept in practice at LTSER platforms. We show positive impacts that have been achieved, including contributions to policy, land-use planning, and natural resource management. We explain key aspects of LTSER platforms that have proven challenging, including management, interdisciplinary integration, and stakeholder collaboration. We characterize the tensions between top-down desires for network harmonization, bottom-up demands such as local policy relevance, and platform-level constraints such as time and budget. Finally, we discuss challenges, such as local context dominating the character of LTSER platforms, and the fact that scientists are often disincentivized from engaging in transdisciplinary science. Overall, we conclude that while the international network offers important advantages to its members, a more productive balance between local and global goals could be achieved, and members may need to temper their expectations of what the network can and cannot offer at the local level.

Spatial and temporal variation of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages during the glacial melt season in an Italian glacier-fed stream

The biodiversity of glacier-fed streams is particularly threatened by climate change, emphasising the need of monitoring these sentinel systems. The glacier-fed Saldur stream is an International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) site in the Italian Central Eastern Alps. Here, we sampled benthic macroinvertebrates and measured environmental variables (discharge, suspended solids, conductivity, water temperature, and channel stability) five times at six sites (5–11 km from the glacier) during an entire glacial melt season (April–September). Our main objectives were (1) to elucidate relationships between the abiotic variables and the faunal composition, (2) to quantify and compare the spatial and temporal variability of the faunal community, and (3) to assess the composition of the benthic macroinvertebrate community in relation to conceptual models. Hosting a higher number of individuals and more diverse communities at sites with reduced glacial influence, the Saldur stream fitted well in the framework of conceptual models. Nevertheless, the spatial variability of the fauna was higher than the temporal variability. This study presents an initial characterisation of the benthic faunal assemblages in the Saldur stream, constituting a reference point for future analyses dealing with potential disruptive factors introduced by climate change and upcoming hydroelectric power production on this stream.

Using data mining techniques to model primary productivity from international long-term ecological research (ILTER) agricultural experiments in Austria

Primary productivity is in the foundation of farming communities. Therefore, much effort is invested in understanding the factors that influence the primary productivity potential of different soils. The International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) is a network that enables valuable comparisons of data in understanding environmental change. In this study, we investigate three ILTER cropland sites and one long-term field experiment (LTE) outside of the ILTER network. The focus is on the influence of different management practices (tillage, crop residue incorporation, and compost amendments) on primary productivity. Data mining analyses of the experimental data were carried out in order to investigate trends in the productivity data. We generated predictive models that identify the influential factors that govern primary productivity. The data mining models achieved very high predictive performance (r > 0.80) for each of the sites. Preceding crop and crop of the current year were crucial for primary productivity in the tillage LTE and compost LTE, respectively. For both crop residue incorporation LTEs, plant-available Mg affected productivity the most, followed by properties such as soil pH, SOM, and the crop residue management. The results obtained by data mining are in line with previous studies and enhance our knowledge about the driving forces of primary productivity in arable systems. Hence, the models are considered very suitable and reliable for predicting the primary productivity at these ILTER sites in the future. They may also encourage researcher-farmer-advisor-stakeholder interaction, and thus create enabling environment for cooperation for further research around these ILTER sites.

Benthic Macroinvertebrate Diversity in the Middle Doce River Basin, Brazil

This resource contains a checklist of the benthic macroinvertebrate community sampled biannually from 1999 to 2010 in eight natural lakes from the middle Rio Doce Valley lake system and eight river segments in the Piracicaba River basin (sub-basin of Doce river), Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Three of the lakes are located inside a protected state park and are surrounded by preserved vegetation (Atlantic Forest). The other five lakes are in private properties, surrounded by Eucalyptus plantations. The seven stretches of rivers have a distinct degree of anthropogenic impacts. Samples were collected with a kick net and fixed with formaldehyde solution. Four phyla were represented: Mollusca, Annelida, Arthropoda, and Platyhelminthes. For Insecta, 76 families were identified, one family was identified for Crustacea, and nine families were identified for Mollusca. This subproject belongs to the International Long-Term Ecological Research Project (ILTER&mdash;Programa de Pesquisas Ecol&oacute;gicas de Longa Dura&ccedil;&atilde;o&mdash;PELD) site 4.

Genesis, goals and achievements of Long-Term Ecological Research at the global scale: A critical review of ILTER and future directions

Since its founding in 1993 the International Long-term Ecological Research Network (ILTER) has gone through pronounced development phases. The current network comprises 44 active member LTER networks representing 700 LTER Sites and ~80 LTSER Platforms across all continents, active in the fields of ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological research. The critical challenges and most important achievements of the initial phase have now become state-of-the-art in networking for excellent science. At the same time increasing integration, accelerating technology, networking of resources and a strong pull for more socially relevant scientific information have been modifying the mission and goals of ILTER. This article provides a critical review of ILTER's mission, goals, development and impacts. Major characteristics, tools, services, partnerships and selected examples of relative strengths relevant for advancing ILTER are presented. We elaborate on the tradeoffs between the needs of the scientific community and stakeholder expectations. The embedding of ILTER in an increasingly collaborative landscape of global environmental observation and ecological research networks and infrastructures is also reflected by developments of pioneering regional and national LTER networks such as SAEON in South Africa, CERN/CEOBEX in China, TERN in Australia or eLTER RI in Europe. The primary role of ILTER is currently seen as a mechanism to investigate ecosystem structure, function, and services in response to a wide range of environmental forcings using long-term, place-based research. We suggest four main fields of activities and advancements for the next decade through development/delivery of a: (1) Global multi-disciplinary community of researchers and research institutes; (2) Strategic global framework and strong partnerships in ecosystem observation and research; (3) Global Research Infrastructure (GRI); and (4) a scientific knowledge factory for societally relevant information on sustainable use of natural resources.

Long-term changes (1990–2015) in the atmospheric deposition and runoff water chemistry of sulphate, inorganic nitrogen and acidity for forested catchments in Europe in relation to changes in emissions and hydrometeorological conditions

The international Long-Term Ecological Research Network (ILTER) encompasses hundreds of long-term research/monitoring sites located in a wide array of ecosystems that can help us understand environmental change across the globe. We evaluated long-term trends (1990–2015) for bulk deposition, throughfall and runoff water chemistry and fluxes, and climatic variables in 25 forested catchments in Europe belonging to the UNECE International Cooperative Programme on Integrated Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Ecosystems (ICP IM). Many of the IM sites form part of the monitoring infrastructures of this larger ILTER network. Trends were evaluated for monthly concentrations of non-marine (anthropogenic fraction, denoted as x) sulphate (xSO4) and base cations x(Ca+Mg), hydrogen ion (H+), inorganic N (NO3 and NH4) and ANC (Acid Neutralising Capacity) and their respective fluxes into and out of the catchments and for monthly precipitation, runoff and air temperature. A significant decrease of xSO4 deposition resulted in decreases in concentrations and fluxes of xSO4 in runoff, being significant at 90% and 60% of the sites, respectively. Bulk deposition of NO3 and NH4 decreased significantly at 60–80% (concentrations) and 40–60% (fluxes) of the sites. Concentrations and fluxes of NO3 in runoff decreased at 73% and 63% of the sites, respectively, and NO3 concentrations decreased significantly at 50% of the sites. Thus, the LTER/ICP IM network confirms the positive effects of the emission reductions in Europe. Air temperature increased significantly at 61% of the sites, while trends for precipitation and runoff were rarely significant. The site-specific variation of xSO4 concentrations in runoff was most strongly explained by deposition. Climatic variables and deposition explained the variation of inorganic N concentrations in runoff at single sites poorly, and as yet there are no clear signs of a consistent deposition-driven or climate-driven increase in inorganic N exports in the catchments.