News
17 October 2022
The LandUnderPressure project - Avoid, mitigate and restore pressured zones to combat desertification and increase resilience to climate change in the montado, was approved for funding with an EEA Grant and signed on the 17th of June 2022 in Portugal. This project was part of the call for tender nº 5 of the EEA Grants – “Projects to prepare for extreme weather conditions and risk management in the context of climate change”. It will join other projects taking place in the LTsER Montado plat...
17 October 2022
Enabling robust and just pathways to sustainability requires understanding how social-ecological systems (SES) respond to different governance configurations. The latter are, in turn, explained through their historical trajectories, biophysical conditions, institutional dynamics, political-economic contexts, dominant discourses, and power differentials. All these factors must be considered to devise future governance configurations that are able to foster successful sustainability pathways.Key q...
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...
13 October 2022
ACTRIS RI announced its TransNational Access call. ATMO-ACCESS provides opportunities for accessing 52 of the most advanced operational European atmospheric research facilities in Europe.The Third Call for TransNational Access is currently ongoing. A full list can be found here.If you are interested to benefit from the instruments, data, or other advantages of the most advanced operational atmospheric research facilities in Europe, please submit your application before January 5, 2023.More infor...
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...
11 October 2022
The trend towards increased climate extremes in the Central Apennines (Central Italy), already documented in Petriccione & Bricca (2019) (doi:10.3897/natureconservation.3430218) is clearly confirmed by the latest field data collected in September 2022 at the LTER Italy Gran Sasso d’Italia site between 2100 and 2400 m a.s.l. by ecologists from the Biodiversity Department of the Carabinieri.As can be seen from the graphs shown above, recorded summer temperatures in 2022 were 3-4 °C higher than...
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...
10 October 2022
The station located in Kibbutz Sdot Yam, Israel, was established to provide baseline data and understanding of the shallow Mediterranean ecosystem. MKMRS is a satellite station of the Leon H Charney School of Marine Sciences, University of Haifa.Its Activity Report covers monitoring seasons 1-10 of the first 6 years of operation. The Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) station was established in 2015 as a response to the lack of open-access, high-resolution data on several aspects of the Israel...
7 October 2022
More than 100 LTER-Europe sites belong to the air pollution effects monitoring of the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP). The long-term International Cooperation Centers (ICP) of ICP Forests, ICP Waters, and ICP Integrated Monitoring, and several data and analysis groups, have for many decades been identifying ecosystem damage (and subsequent recovery) from air pollution. eLTER and the ICPs work in the same realm of environmental issues, address common societal g...
5 October 2022
The International Mountain Conference took place in Innsbruck (September 11-15, 2022), continuing the series of scientific conferences exclusively targeting mountain-research.Hosted in the European Alps, the IMC provided a fantastic opportunity for experts from different disciplines to discuss mountain-related issues in a cross-disciplinary setting. The conference aimed at enhancing and synthesizing our understanding of mountain systems, particularly their response and resilience to global chang...
7 July 2022
On 15 May, a team from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology jointly hosted an event (with Dundee University) in Kincraig as part of the Cairngorms Nature Big Weekend. The event aimed to show people some of the scientific research that takes place in the Cairngorms National Park. Aimed at all age groups, it was an opportunity for people to contribute their own ideas about the research needed in the park.Environmental Change Network monitoring at the Cairngorms ECN site was among the activiti...
23 June 2022
CNRS has opened a tenure track position on the observation and analysis of the stratosphere variability. This Junior Professorship aims at supporting and developing actions of long term observation of the atmospheric composition resolved in altitude (profiles) by means of active remote sensing (LIDAR).Labelled through the NDACC National Observation Service and structured within the ACTRIS research infrastructure in France and the ACTRIS ERIC in Europe, LIDAR observations are one of the most...
17 June 2022
Atmospheric Ammonia Pollution Measurement Scientist£41,040Full timeBased at UKCEH EdinburghThe closing date for applications is Tuesday 28th June 2022.Interviews will be held shortly after this.Research scientist with experience of passive and active sampling of atmospheric ammonia pollution is required to lead projects and develop research for high quality measurements of this pollutant and others in agricutural, urban and rural locations. Integration of ammonia pollution research with ecosyste...
25 May 2022
Last autumn, a project started on "Monitoring of the conservation status of the Mar Piccolo of Taranto, with particular reference to the presence of marine phanerogams and non-indigenous species". It was funded by the Apulia Region within the framework of POR-Puglia 2014-2020, aiming to select monitoring actions on Apulian species and habitat of the Natura 2000 network.During the next two years, up to December 2023, mapping of marine phanerogams (i.e. Cymodocea nodosa and Ruppia cirrhosa) will b...
23 May 2022
How can nature conservation be combined with the Bedouin shepherds' traditions? To answer this question, we've collected a diverse group of experts from academia and civil society to consider dimensions ranging from ecological impact of grazing to the meaning of 'natural'.Through discussions with Bedouin shepherds, Nature and Parks Authority (NPA) representatives, and legal experts, we aim to find collaborative, equitable solutions to this seemingly intractable socio-ecological challenge.&n...
18 May 2022
At the end of the first mandate of the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, the Presidential Estate of Castelporziano, published the fourth series of the work entitled "The environmental system of the Presidential Estate of Castelporziano. Research on the complexity of a Mediterranean coastal forest ecosystem", issued in three volumes within the "Scritti e Documenti" series by the National Academy of Sciences known as the XL.With over a thousand pages, the series collects sixty-...
10 May 2022
A new project funded by Portuguese national funds (FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) started in March 2021 and will run until 2024 with the support of LTSER Montado platform.Project RENEWAL (PTDC/ASP-SIL/7743/2020) is aimed at promoting 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-econom...
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...
15 April 2022
With our whole system, place-based approach, the eLTER RI is well placed toaddress some of the most pressing environmental problems facing Europe today. However, a single Research Infrastructure (RI) cannot hope to generate all the knowledge needed to build a sustainable future. Instead that knowledge has to come from multiple sources, including a range of RIs. Co-location of multiple RIs at the same physical location offers a unique opportunity to create actionable knowledge synthesized from th...
12 April 2022
The SMEAR site (Station for Measuring Ecosystem-Atmosphere Relations) is situated in the Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station of the University of Helsinki, in southern Finland. The site consists of a managed, 60-year old boreal Scots pine forest stand, two open oligotrophic fen sites and a humic lake with a forested catchment. In addition to eLTER, the site belongs to the ICOS and ACTRIS infrastructures with four labelled ICOS stations and an ACTRIS labelling process currently beginning. There are a...
6 April 2022
Around 30 representatives from the 26 eLTER countries make up the National comms team (NCT) as the next stage in the strategic communication and dissemination development of eLTER.The team has three main specific tasks: to further distribute the eLTER projects’ news across their communities, to focus more attention on the research and work being done by each national network, and to gather better knowledge of the specific communication difficulties and opportunities in each country.The NCT will...
4 April 2022
HORIZON-INFRA-2021-TECH-01-01Lead by: Dr Damien Lecarpentier, CSC FinlandBudget: ~€12MLifespan: June 2022 – May 2025The goal of BioDT is to push the current boundaries of predictive understanding of biodiversity dynamics by developing a Biodiversity Digital Twin (BioDT) providing advanced modelling, simulation and prediction capabilities. By using already existing technologies and data from relevant research infrastructures in new ways, the BioDT will be able to accurately and quantitatively mod...
4 April 2022
Raising awareness on Gender Equality issues is part of eLTER’s Strategic Plan. This year, as part of this objective, eLTER held a celebratory event to increase the visibility of research done by women in the network. The online event opened with an introduction to the eLTER Gender Equality plan by Terhi Rasilo (UH/Finland). Next, Alessandra Pugnetti (CNR/Italy) talked about Walking on "uncomfortable " paths to explore a broader idea of Nature based on experience in LTER-Italy. Pugnetti’s ta...
1 April 2022
Looking backwards eLTER can duly state to have made the best of the time since Covid-19 hit the globe in March 2020. In teams from 26 countries we have elaborated many components of the eLTER Research Infrastructure´s foundation. Reasonably sized groups of established teams have partly been even more efficient, when virtually collaborating on concrete tasks. However, we all have experienced the limitations of virtual interaction beyond certain group sizes, in attracting and integrating new exper...
3 January 2022
Thomas Dirnböck (Umweltbundesamt, Austria, and LTER site Zöbelboden) talked at the COP26 side event „Atmospheric Deposition, the invisible threat – impacts on agriculture, ecosystem and oceans”, organized by the WMO. He presented the latest scientific results regarding Nitrogen deposition effects in ecosystems including water pollution with nitrate, biodiversity loss but also changes in the potential of ecosystems to absorb or release greenhouse gases.In order to better assess the impacts posed...
30 December 2021
The first Periodic review meetings of both eLTER PPP and eLTER PLUS took place at the end of October 2021. From the projects’ side, the coordination and Work Package leads were present, and from the Commission’s side the project officer, Pierre Quertenmont. Richard Bradshaw (University Leeds, UK) was an external evaluator.The Review meetings consisted of a general introduction by the coordination, Work Package (WP) specific presentations by WP leads highlighting the most important outcomes of th...
27 December 2021
Five years after its establishment (2016), the LTER-Greece network has outlined its vision, aims, objectives and its achievements through a series of case studies in an article published in the WATER journal. The network consists of eight observatories, focusing on innovative research topics, aiming to be both cooperative and complementary. The article describes the design of the LTER-Greece network, its research priorities as well as recent interdisciplinary research collaboration results, as a...
21 December 2021
On 23rd November 2021 Kevin Bishop (Sweden), the new Chairperson of the eLTER Interim Council (Ministerial delegations) met several members of the eLTER team (Jaana Bäck, Terhi Rasilo, Marjut Kaukolehto & Michael Mirtl) in Helsinki, Finland.A full day was dedicated to clarifying several strategic eLTER matters, discussing the status of eLTER across 26 countries and working on the agenda of the third eLTER Interim Council (IC), to be held on 28 and 29 January 2022.A deeper understanding of th...
19 July 2022
The 30th session of ERCA is planned to take place in Grenoble and at the Observatoire de Haute Provence for 3 weeks from January 15th to February 2nd, 2023. ERCA is intended as a multidisciplinary course rooted in atmospheric and climate sciences, yet extending to the social aspects of global change and air quality, to hydrology and oceanography, and to environmental chemistry.The organisers "strongly believe that global change issues need international and pluridisciplinary teams to be adressed...
19 July 2022
As part of the AtmoTrace project, funded by Science Foundation Ireland, the Center for Research into Atmospheric Chemistry (University College Cork, Ireland) has currently three PhD positions available focusing on the development of cavity enhanced absorption instrumentation for several applications reaching from laboratory developments, via atmospheric chamber studies, to airborne field campaigns. More information on the corresponding positions and application details can be found here:ht...
18 July 2022
The EGU General Assembly 2023 will be held on site at the Austria Center Vienna (ACV), Austria, with online components provided to enable virtual attendance, from 23 to 28 April 2023.You can take an active part in organizing the scientific programme of the conference, from now until 19 September 2022, by suggesting sessions with conveners and description in your preferred programme group. You have the possibility of proposing either physical oral/poster sessions with a hybrid component or hybrid...
8 July 2022
The Brazil-France Bilateral Thematic Project "BIOgenic emissions, chemistry and impacts in the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo: BIOMASP+" (process 2020/07141-2) offers a post-doc fellowship to study local emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) and atmospheric concentrations in urban forests, contributing to advances in the understanding of the local photochemical processes and their potential interactions and impacts in polluted regions.The researcher will be based in the Instit...
5 July 2022
NILU is a dynamic research institute providing expertise on a wide range of climate and environmental topics. NILU’s Atmosphere and climate (ATMOS) department studies atmospheric processes, pollutants, including greenhouse gases, as well as the dispersal of aerosols and radionuclides.The ATMOS department is seeking a research scientist to join their team. The successful candidate will use atmospheric transport modelling and inverse modelling to better understand the sources, sinks and transport...
20 June 2022
A 2-years program graduating a Master of Science in physics or chemistry of the atmosphere at the University of Lille, at the highest level aiming to give intendants a strong background in:· Physical and chemical properties of the atmosphere from the molecular to the global scale,· Analytical sciences applied to airborne environment,· Recent research activities on air pollution and climate changes. The international Master ...
18 April 2022
NILU’s research is of direct relevance to human health and the environment. A key activity area of expertise is in the science-policy interface where NILU provides support to the development and implementation of air quality and climate change policies in Europe.It is seeking for a senior scientist/scientist with interest and capabilities to strengthen its activities on science-policy interaction, to support international and national environmental policy processes and policy/legislation develop...
18 April 2022
TROPOS is currently looking for two Post Docs who are interested in investigating the impact of controlled seeding experiments on the evolution of mixed-phase clouds. Expertise is required either in the field of radar-lidar remote sensing techniques or in cloud-resolved modelling.PostDoc-1 will work on the characterization of the transition of the seeded supercooled liquid stratiform clouds into mixed-phase clouds using synergistic, multi-wavelength and polarimetric ground-based remote sensing w...
9 March 2022
ACTRIS invites researchers to register and submit their scientific contributions to the 1st ACTRIS Science Conference, due to take place virtually on May 11th-13th, 2022. Important dates:Abstract submission deadline: 25 March 2022 – no late submission will be considered.Registration deadline: 2 May 2022Poster submission deadline: 4 May 2022The conference will be held in conjunction with the ACTRIS course on atmospheric observations and will be organised jointly by the Institute for Atm...
21 February 2022
Uppsala University offers two post-doctoral opportunities. The deadline for both is March 1st. The first one is:Postdoctoral position in modelling of carbon burial in lake sediments.Lake sediments constitute a carbon sink that has a cooling effect on climate. Current estimates of the global-scale magnitude of the lake carbon sink are however very uncertain as they build on extrapolation from few, geographically biased measurements. This project aims at building a process-based model of organic c...