ELTR-PLUS
Long-Term Ecosystem Research in Europe - Advanced Community Project
Finanziamento: Horizon2020
Periodo: Febbraio 2020 – Gennaio 2025
Responsabile Scientifico: Saverio Vicario

Abstract del progetto

The eLTER Advanced Community Project (eLTER PLUS) tests the performance and further develops the services of the emerging European Long-term Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (eLTER RI), together with RI users from several research communities.
In its exemplary case studies, eLTER PLUS studies ecosystem and socio-ecological responses to globally critical environmental challenges, which are endangering ecosystem integrity and ecosystem services. This involves creating new tools for cross-disciplinary collaboration, improving access to selected sites and platforms in terrestrial, freshwater and coastal ecosystems, and facilitating the use of their long-term observational data.

eLTER PLUS will conduct a performance test of the emerging eLTER RI while challenging, assessing and strengthening its operations. Selected sites and platforms in terrestrial, freshwater and coastal ecosystems will be used to study ecosystem integrity, impacts of climate change and endangered ecosystem services at a pan-European scale. Alongside these exemplary case studies eLTER PLUS will identify and assess innovative observational and analytical methods, elaborate detailed specifications of eLTER RI according to community needs (standard observations, site design), support community building and training, and pilot priority services (IT and other support).

eLTER - Research Infrastructure (eLTER-RI) will adopt a fundamentally systemic approach to observe and analyse the environmental system, encompassing biological, geological, hydrological and socio-ecological perspectives.
While several existing thematic environmental RIs focus on impacts of climate change and/or other elements of environmental change, eLTER RI will be the only research infrastructure embracing holistically the integrated impacts of such stressors on a wide variety of European benchmark ecosystems (major geo-eco-sociological systems across the continent’s eco-climatological zones and Earth’s critical zone).
eLTER RI will comprise terrestrial, freshwater and transitional water sites. It will allow in-situ, co-located acquisition and gathering of Essential Variables ranging from bio-physicochemical to biodiversity and socio-ecological data. Ecosystem change caused by long-term pressures and short-term pulses will be investigated in a nested design across the scales covered by the eLTER RI site network.
The main objectives of eLTER PLUS for responding to user needs are:
● to advance access to a wide range of tailored, state-of-the-art sites and platforms, and to their current and legacy data in a coordinated manner, in order to promote their capacities for service provisioning and accessibility to new users;
● to foster the development and facilitate the uptake of harmonised observation protocols and methodologies as basis for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable & Re-usable (FAIR) data on Essential Ecosystem Variables (EEVs), and to add value to them through complementarity and synergies between other environmental RIs and networks, e.g. by piloting co-location and co-design;
● to enhance community building on ecosystem research and advance capacity building, support for innovations and improved technologies, by training site managers and researchers and engaging diverse stakeholders including industry, students, local residents and citizen scientists;
● to provide key input to the eLTER ESFRI process, particularly with respect to the requirements of the wider scientific user communities, feasible NRI design, optimal protocols, dissemination tools and service portfolios required to sustainably develop eLTER RI operations;
● to provide national and European decision makers, natural resource managers and land use planners with quality controlled information tools for detecting the long-term efficiency of policies related to EU Directives and SDGs, e.g. related to biodiversity, climate action (adaptation, mitigation via various sinks), agriculture, sustainable forest management, water and environmental quality, and to optimise the societal and policy relevance of eLTER RI;
● to develop and disseminate novel methods for integrating ecosystem, critical zone, and socio-ecological research at pan-European, in situ research sites, and to integrate in situ measurements and remote sensing observations.
1 HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO FI
2 HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM FUR UMWELTFORSCHUNG GMBH - UFZ DE
3 UMWELTBUNDESAMT GESELLSCHAFT MIT BESCHRANKTER HAFTUNG (UBA GMBH) AT
4 PENSOFT PUBLISHERS BG
5 SUOMEN YMPARISTOKESKUS FI
6 FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM JULICH GMBH DE
7 SENCKENBERG GESELLSCHAFT FUR NATURFORSCHUNG DE
8 BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV IL
9 TECHNION - ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY IL
10 CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE IT
11 AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS ES
12 UNITED KINGDOM RESEARCH AND INNOVATION UK
13 UNIVERSITAET FUER BODENKULTUR WIEN AT
14 EIGEN VERMOGEN VAN HET INSTITUUT VOOR NATUUR- EN BOSONDERZOEK BE
15 INSTITUT PO BIORAZNOOBRAZIE I EKOSISTEMNI IZSLEDVANIYA BALGARSKA AKADEMIYA NA NAUKITE BG
16 USTAV VYZKUMU GLOBALNI ZMENY AV CR VVI CZ
17 KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET DK
18 CSC-TIETEEN TIETOTEKNIIKAN KESKUS OY FI
19 CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS FR
20 Nationalpark Bayericher Wald DE
21 POLYTECHNEIO KRITIS EL
22 MAGYAR TUDOMANYOS AKADEMIA OKOLOGIAI KUTATOKOZPONT HU
23 UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO IT
24 LATVIJAS UNIVERSITATE LV
25 EUROPEJSKIE REGIONALNE CENTRUM EKOHYDROLOGII POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK PL
26 ICETA INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS, TECNOLOGIAS E AGROAMBIENTE DA UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO PT
27 FCIENCIAS.ID - ASSOCIACAO PARA A INVESTIGACAO E DESENVOLVIMENTO DE CIENCIAS PT
28 UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI RO
29 BIOSENSE INSTITUTE - RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN BIOSYSTEMS RS
30 INSTITUTE OF LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY OF THE SLOVAK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES SK
31 ZNANSTVENORAZISKOVALNI CENTER SLOVENSKE AKADEMIJE ZNANOSTI IN UMETNOSTI SI
32 SVERIGES LANTBRUKSUNIVERSITET SE
33 EIDGENOESSISCHE FORSCHUNGSANSTALT WSL CH



Saverio Vicario
Maria Patrizia Adamo