Participants

ExpeER comprised 35 research institutes and universities from 19 countries across Europe.

AUSTRIA: Bundesforschungs und Ausbildungszentrum für Wald, Naturgefahren und Landschaft (BFW)

BFW is a multidisciplinary research and training centre of the Federal Republic of Austria, constituted as an autonomous institution based on public law. Within the department of Forest Ecology, the site-related factors of forest ecosystems are studied, which includes soil science, geomorphology, climate and forest vegetation. The Unit of Soil Biology investigates the role of soils as sources or sinks for greenhouse gases. Microbial community structures in soils, soil biodiversity, nitrogen cycling and global change effects on ecosystem are major research topics.    

People involved:

• Barbara KITZLER. Head of the soil biology unit, involved in the EU-Projects NOFRETETE and NITROEUROPE, her major research topics are the role of land use, climate change and N deposition on GHG emissions, data management, modelling and management and coordination of field sites and laboratory investigations.
• Andreas SCHINDLBACHER. Responsible for the climate manipulation site Achenkirch, main focus on soil ecology and C-cycling. Contact person for the manipulation site Achenkirch.
• Sophie ZECHMEISTER-BOLTENSTERN. Former head of the soil biology unit at BFW. Currently professor at University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, Department of Forest and Soil Sciences.

Contact: Andreas SCHINDLBACHER and Barbara KITZLER
Infrastructures: HIES
TNA sites: Achenkirch / Klausenleopoldsdorf

AUSTRIA: Umweltbundesamt GMBH (EAA)

The Federal Environment Agency Austria (EAA) is the expert authority of the Federal Government of Austria for environmental protection and environmental control. The work for the proposed project will be carried out by the department for Ecosystem Research & Monitoring which deals with long term ecosystem monitoring (running the Austrian UNECE IM Site Zöbelboden), semantic data management, coordination of regional research activities and networking (LTER Europe).

People involved:

• Dr. Peterseil JOHANNES. His is working as senior expert in the fields of long term ecosystem monitoring (Integrated Monitoring UN/ECE), data management and knowledge transfer using ontologies (MORIS, Alter-Net, FP6 NoE), development of a monitoring system for biodiversity on the national (MOBI-e) and European scale (EBONE, FP7). He is currently head of the expert panel on Information Management of LTER Europe.
• DI Barbara MAGAGNA. She is holding a master degree in landscape planning and geoinformatics and has experience working in the field of GIS, landscape ecology modelling and database management for projects operating at different scales. Her main field of activities are ontology engineering, process facilitation and database design.    
• Dr. Michael MIRTL. Head of the Department for Ecosystem Research & Monitoring, his main field of activities is the co-ordination of the Austrian contribution to the Working Group on Effects ICP on Integrated Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Ecosystems, leading expert in the development of MORIS, the conceptual work on the integration of ecological and socio-economic research in LTSER, including scaling issues (Alter-Net, FP6 NoE) and the establishment of the multifunctional research platform “Eisenwurzen”. He is chair of LTER-Europe.
• Herbert SCHENTZ. Senior business analyst at the department for Ecosystem Research and Monitoring, his main field of expertise is in data management and knowledge transfer using ontologies (Alter-Net, FP6 NoE), semantic integration of biodiversity data (LifeWatch, FP7) and object oriented data management systems (MORIS).

Contact: Michael MIRTL (also responsible of WP4)
Infrastructures: HIES - Modelling platform
TNA site: Zöbelboden

BELGIUM: Universiteit Antwerpen (UA)

The University of Antwerp is a medium-size university (about 12000 students) in Flanders. People involved in the project are all in the Research group Plant and Vegetation Ecology (PLECO), one of the five Centres of Excellence in the university. The scientific scope of the group is diverse, but all research topics have “global change” in common. This comprises effects of increased CO2 concentrations, biodiversity loss, climate warming, climate extremes, and studies into bio-energy production.

People involved:  

• Dr. Hans DE BOECK. His major research topics are climate warming impact on plants and ecology of extreme events, including methodological issues such as ‘observer effects’ and recreation of natural heat waves.
• Fred KOCKELBERGH. His major research topics are climate manipulation systems (developer), such as the technical realisation of an accurate infrared heating system used in studies in Sweden and Greenland.
• Prof. Ivan NIJS. His major research topics are global change ecology (climate change, invasive species, biodiversity loss) and community and ecosystem ecology : biodiversity-functioning relationships. Methodological issues have been a continuous point of interest, including the development and improvement of a system for active and controled warming of canopies via infrared heating.

Contact: Ivan NIJS (also responsible for WP8)
Infrastructures: HIES - Modelling platform - Analytical platform

DENMARK: Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU)

Risoe DTU, the technical university of Denmark, is the national laboratory for sustainable energy research with research groups within the fields of wind energy, solar panels, bio-energy, energy systems, systems analyses and environmental impacts studies. The Biosystems division focuses on research on the use of biomass for energy and biorefinery as well as environmental impacts studies and carbon sequestration. The department has a staff of 70 scientists and technicians, has many years of experience in experimental studies in terrestrial ecosystems including biogeochemical modeling and has coordinated and participated in numerous national and international ecosystem research projects with particular focus on air pollution and climate change impacts in terrestrial ecosystems. It also has strong experience in ecosystem manipulation, soil, gas and water measurements and modeling and is involved in several ongoing international infrastructures and research networks.
Involvement in ExpeER : DTU will coordinate WP9 on plot scale modeling, will be responsible for creating a model parameter library and contribute to the development of the dynamic vegetation models.

People involved: 

• Klaus STEENBERG LARSEN. Ph.D. in Biology, he has worked as researcher at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Centre for Ecosystems and Sustainability, and actually as a senior scientist. He has 10-year R&D experience working on carbon and nitrogen turnover in terrestrial ecosystems, spanning from laboratory studies focusing on specific processes to field-scale climate manipulations focusing on ecosystem scale impacts.
• Andreas IBROM. Senior scientist and partner in several EU projects, his major research topics are biometeorology, carbon sequestration and canopy photosynthesis modelling.
• Leon LINDEN. Postdoctoral fellow in the ecosystem modelling in CLIMAITE project, he has experience in model development and application of physical-chemical-biological coupled models.

Contact: Klaus STEENBERG LARSEN
Infrastructures: HIOS - HIES - Ecotron - Modelling platform

FRANCE: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

The CNRS is a government-funded research organization. As the largest fundamental research organization in Europe, it carried out research in all fields of knowledge through ten institutes. The Institute of Ecology and Environment (INEE) administers 80 research units with a total of 4900 persons. In addition, INEE contributes to the funding of 133 other research units with which pluridisciplinary research is contacted. Its research activities cover five themes : biodiversity and functional ecology, analysis and management of ecosystem services, ecological systems feedbacks on climate, adaptation and evolution in changing environments, and man impact on environment and biota. INEE develops and support large research infrastructures such as ecotrons, experimental platforms, observatories and databases. Four CNRS units are involved in EXPEER : UMR CEFE (Montpellier), UPS Ecotron (Montferrier sur lez), UMR LSCE (Gif-sur-Yvette) and UMR BIOEMCO (Thiverval-Grignon).

People involved:

• Thierry BARIAC. Research scientist (UMR-UPMC-BIOEMCO), he is specialized in Isotopic biogeochemistry.    
• Philippe CIAIS. Research scientist (UMR LSCE), LSCE assistant director and Coordinator of the ICOS EU project, he is specialized in carbon cycle.             
• Marie-France DIGNAC. Research scientist (UMR-UPMC-BIOEMCO) and co-responsible of the chemical and isotopic analytical platform, she is specialized in organic matter chemistry.
• Richard JOFFRE. Research scientist (UMR CEFE), he is specialized in soil ecology.
• Jean-Marc OURCIVAL. Research engineer (UMR CEFE), he is specialized in ecophysiology and micrometeorology.
• Philippe PEYLIN. Research scientist (UMR LSCE), he is specialized in carbon cycle modelling.
• Clément PIEL. Research engineer (UPS Ecotron), he is specialized in isotopist.    
• Serge RAMBAL. Research scientist (UMR CEFE), he is specialized in ecohydrology and landscape ecology.
• Olivier RAVEL. Research engineer (UPS Ecotron), he is specialized in process control.
• Jacques ROY. Research scientist (UPS Ecotron) and director of the ecotron, he is specialized in ecosystem physiology.
• Cornelia RUMPEL. Research scientist (UMR-UPMC-BIOEMCO) and co-responsible of the chemical and isotopic analytical platform, she is specialized in soil science.
• Nicolas VIOVY. Reseach scientist (UMR LSCE), he is specialized in biogeochemical cycles modelling.

Contact: Jacques ROY (also responsible of WP 5)
Infrastructures: HIES - Ecotron - Modelling platform - Analytical platform
TNA sites: Puechabon / Grignon / Montpellier Ecotron

FRANCE: Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA)

INRA is the largest agricultural research Institute in Europe, with a total of 22 Research Centres and a permanent staff of 8,500. It has three major objectives : development of sustainable agriculture, food and the effect on human health, environment and land. INRA is contributing to ICOS (steering committee), NitroEurope-IP (leading several WP), has recently coordinated the GreenGrass project (on the greenhouse gas balance of European grasslands) and participated to different EC projects (GRAMINAE, MEGARICH, INCA). Due to its large domain of expertise and experimental sites, INRA will coordinate ExpeER and contribute to the different workpackages.

People involved:  

• Abad CHABBI is a plant ecologist and soil biogeochemist. He worked at the Louisiana State University, USA, the Faculty of Environmental Science in Cottbus, Germany and the INRA research council where he is leading the Observatories for Environmental Research-Agro-ecosystem, Biogechemical Cycles and Biodiversity. His research interests cover: (i) the effect of plant on soil organic matter dynamics, (ii) ecosystem responses to disturbance and biogeochemical cycles. During his career, Dr Chabbi has coordinated a number of pluridisciplinary projects, chaired and organized numerous international symposiums and edited several special issues of leading international journals. He is the associated editor of AoB Plants Oxford Journals and member of the board of Water Air and Soil Pollution Journal. He has presented a number of keynotes seminars around the world. Currently, Dr Chabbi is member expert of the Chinese Academy of Science, DFG German research foundation, Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food & Agriculture and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
• André GRANIER. Director of the Ephyse unit and principal investigator of the Hesse experimental platform, he is working on water cycles of forest ecosystems.
• Bernard LONGDOZ. He is a researcher specialist in gas (CO₂, H₂O, stable isotope) transport between forest ecosystem components and atmosphere (eddy-covariance, soil respiration) and has expertise is the soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer modelling.
• Denis LOUSTAU. Senior scientist at INRA Bordeaux, he has been heading the research unit for the last four years. Since 1991, he was involved in the main European projects devoted to the climate change impacts on temperate, boreal and mediterranean forests and the continental carbon cycle.
• Laurent PRÉVOT. INRA bioclimatologist at UMR LISAH (Montpellier), he is having an experience in the observation and the modelling of energy and mass exchanges between land surfaces and atmosphere within agricultural and semi-arid areas, including SVAT and energy / water balance modelling, eddy covariance measurements and remote sensing of surface temperature in relation with energy and water status.
• Jean-François SOUSSANA. Senior scientist at INRA Clermont, his research interests cover the interactions between biodiversity and global change in temperate grasslands and their impacts for the carbon and nitrogen cycles and for greenhouse gas emissions.

Contact: Abad CHABBI (also coordinator of the project).
Infrastructures: HIES - Modelling platform
TNA sites: Hesse / Pierroton / Lusignan

FRANCE: INRA Transfert (IT)

INRA Transfert is a fully-owned subsidiary of INRA founded in 2001 as part of its effort to exploit research results and innovative technologies, and develop them into concrete business opportunities. IT is originally a technology transfer company specialised in the field of innovating technologies arising from agriculture-related research. The Europe Department of INRA was additionally created in 2004 with the purpose of strengthening the participation of INRA in the European Research Area. Its mission is to help INRA researchers and partners setup projects in response to EC calls and to manage them once selected by the EC. Thanks to a team combining scientific background, project management skills and good knowledge of EC programmes, the Europe department of INRA Transfert has a strong expertise in: Helping researchers in the conception, construction and writing of relevant proposals Managing collaborative research projects. IT is currently supporting INRA in managing 2 Infrastructure projects as well as numerous FP7 projects and FP6 projects collaborative projects and networks. Additionally, in terms of dissemination of the project results, IT puts at the disposal of the project the unique expertise holds by its Technology Transfer department in: Managing technology portfolios through analysing inventions and their environment, searching for industrial partners, negotiating terms and conditions of technology transfer. Supporting development of innovative start-up companies by defining a business project around the know-how or patented technology to be transferred; determining IP related results to guarantee conditions for product commercialisation ; Organising the technology transfer to the innovation company.

People involved:    

• Ms Angela BAKER. She holds a B.A. Honours from the University of Durham and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education from the University of Cambridge UK. She has 10 years experience in the setting up and management of large collaborative research projects and networks : firstly at ARTTIC (a consulting company specialized in EC project management), followed by the European Institute for eLearning and, since June 2007, at INRA Transfert. She currently oversees 6 FP7 projects (2 I3 projects) as well as setting up and negotiating several FP7 collaborative research projects.

Contact: Yuchong TANG

FINLAND: Suomen Ymparistokeskus (SYKE)

The Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) is the only governmental research and development institute located within the administration of the Finnish Ministry of Environment (link to www.environment.fi/syke). All SYKE's research is carried out in seven research programmes on themes varying from global environmental issues, like climate change and biodiversity, to more national and regional issues, like controlling eutrophication and hazardous substances. SYKE employs nearly 600 people, more than 370 of whom are university educated scientists. It coordinates the Finnish LTER-network and the Finnish part of the EU/ESFRI research infrastructure project LifeWatch (biodiversity and ecosystem research), compiles and manages data and geographical information systems, develops operative remote sensing systems, and maintains and develops information systems related to land use.

People involved:

• Saku ANTTILA. He has gained vast experience in the field of environmental remote sensing and GIS applications. He has been developing the operative remote sensing monitoring system of Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) since 2003 and has participated in several international projects. In EU/Life+ funded VACCIA project, he develops remote sensing end products for the Finnish LTER–network.
• Martin FORSIUS. Professor and research manager, he has expertise in effects of climate change and air pollutants on biogeochemical processes. He is leading the Research Programme for Global Change at the Research Department of SYKE,  has directed national, Nordic and EU-funded projects on the effects of global change drivers on forested catchments and surface waters, is leading the Finnish LTER-network and is the Finnish representative of the Science and Policy Board of the EU/ESFRI research infrastructure project LifeWatch.
• Pekka HÄRMÄ. Leader of SYKE's remote sensing group and led national and international projects like Balans, Corine Land Cover 2000 and GSE Land, he has long experience of remote sensing of land cover, especially forests.
• Yki LAINE. He has versatile experience in GIS including for example design, creation and maintenance of GIS databases, geographic analyses, programming user interfaces and teaching of GIS. In addition to his GIS experience within environmental administration, he has also taken part in international research and development co-operation projects as a GIS expert, and is responsible on INSPIRE metadata implementation in SYKE.

Contact: Martin FORSIUS (also executive committee member)
Infrastructures: HIOS - Modelling platform

FINLAND: Helsingin Yliopisto (UHEL)

The University of Helsinki is the oldest and largest university in Finland and the only one that is ranked among the 70 best science universities in the world. Department of Forest Ecology and Department of Physics have a common APFE-group that is running 3 internationally highly recognized SMEAR field stations studying ecosystems atmosphere interactions. The group is among world leaders in the study of biosphere atmosphere interaction and its impact on atmosphere properties. With their collaborators, the group has published close to 20 articles in science and nature in 2000’s. The UHEL group will provide its versatile data on radiation, ecosystem fluxes of carbon water and nitrogen and atmospheric aerosols from the SMEAR stations in forest and urban conditions since 1996.

People involved: 

• Annikki MÄKELÄ. Professor of Forest Ecology at the department of Forest Ecology, she is leading a number of Finnish academy funded projects and participating on a number of EU and international projects concentrating on process based modelling of tree growth and its dependence on environmental factors and on expected climate change impacts on tree growth.
• Eero NIKINMAA. Professor of Forest Ecology at the department of Forest Ecology, he is an expert on tree ecophysiology, long distance transport in trees and tree growth processes and he is an author of several process-based tree and stand models. He is the principal investigator of long-term ecological research network (LTER) site in Central Finland and is running intensive tree ecophysiology monitoring at UHEL SMEARII station (core station of the LTER area) and his own research group is also member of the national Centre of Excellence by Academy of Finland Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change.
• Albert PORCAR. Post doctoral researcher at the department of Forest Ecology, he defended his doctoral thesis on florosence analysis of the photosynthetic light reactions in 2008 with high grade and is the responsible researcher on the spectral and fluoresence analysis of the forest canopy in the national Centre of Excellence by Academy of Finland Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change. He is also collaborating with University of Edinburgh (Caroline Nicholl) and University of Bologna (Federico Magnani) on the hyperspectral analysis of vegetation gas fluxes.        
• Timo VESALA. Professor of Meteorology in the department of Physics (division of Atmospheric Sciences), he has over 10 years research experience in the field of land surface-atmosphere exchange processes and has developed research on biosphere-atmosphere interactions. He has coordinated the FP-6 EU project CORE and two INTAS projects, is a team leader coordinating the Finnish research in Nordic Centre of Excellence NECC and his own research group is also member of the national Centre of Excellence by Academy of Finland “Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change”.
• Jaana BACK. Doctor in charge of the forest ecophysiological measurements at the SMEAR II station, southern Finland. Her expertise is in tree ecophysiology and biosphere-atmosphere interactions. She has worked with e.g. O3 deposition and effects on plants, the responses of terrestrial plants on acidic precipitation and climate change, and formation of biogenic volatile organic compounds in boreal ecosystems.

Contact:  Jaana BACK and Eero NIKINMAA
Infrastructures: HIOS - Modelling platform
TNA site: Hyytiälä

GERMANY: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (FSU JENA)

The Friedrich Schiller University in Jena was founded in 1558 and currently enrolls about 21,000 students distributed over ten different schools. It is responsible for the running and organisation of the Jena Experiment, one of the currently largest biodiversity experiment in the world, and will allow researchers access to this facility. The Institute of Ecology is one of the largest ecology institutes in Germany with more than 100 people working in different areas ranging from population ecology to biodiversity research.

People involved: 

• Dr. Anne EBELING. Field coordinator of the Jena Experiment, she is an entomologist with special expertise in pollination.
• Dr. Sebastian MEYERIS. Postdoc in the Jena Experiment, his expertise is plant ecology.
• Prof. Wolfgang W. WEISSER. Responsible for the Jena Experiment, he is an entomologist with long experience in organising large-scale biodiversity studies.

Contact: Wolfgang W. WEISSER
Infrastructures: HIES - Modelling platform
TNA site: Jena

GERMANY: Forschungszentrum Jülich (Jülich)

The Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) has a long tradition in interdisciplinary research with a specific focus on Energy and Climate and simulation sciences. It is actually one of the leading supercomputer facilities in Europe and coordinates through its Agrosphere Institute the research programme TERENO (Terrestrial Environmental Observatories) funded by the Helmholtz Association with the aim to investigate consequences of Global Change for terrestrial ecosystems and their socioeconomic implications. The activities of the Agrosphere Institute (ICG-4) aim to contribute to a sustainable use of the natural resources soil and water and to provide an improved understanding of the functioning of terrestrial systems. The Agrosphere institute will contribute with functional analysis of soils, surface water and groundwater with a focus on analysing and characterising physico-chemical and biological functions as well as monitoring and simulation of water and matter fluxes in terrestrial systems at different scales.

People involved:

• Heye BOGENA. Member of the Agrosphere Institute, his research area is hydrology with emphasis on (i) development of environmental monitoring concepts, (ii) analyzing and modelling of hydrological processes, (iii) geographical Information Systems ; and concerns water resource management related to research subjects including global change, climate change, regional groundwater recharge and vulnerability assessment, soil moisture assessment, development of wireless sensor networks, distributed runoff modeling and early warning systems.
• Alexander GRAF. Member of the Agrosphere Institute, his research area is climatology and micrometeorology with a focus on the exchange of matter (water vapour, CO2) and sensible heat between land surfaces, especially soils, and the atmosphere. Tools used in these studies include eddy covariance, chamber and microlysimeter measurements as well as analytical models of dispersion in soil and air and the research concerns water and carbon cycling with relation to climate change.
• Michael HERBST. Member of the Agrosphere Institute, his research areas are carbon, water and energy fluxes in soils with emphasis on (i) coupling and development of mechanistic models (ii) measurement of soil carbon fluxes, (iii) validation and evaluation of model concepts using field data ; and research activities involve the upscaling of processes, geostatistical characterisation of patterns and model inversions for biogeochemical and hydrological issues against the background of climate change.
• Harry VEREECKEN. Full professor at Bonn University (Faculty of Agriculture) and director of the Agrosphere Institute, his research interests include hydrology, hydrogeophysics, and soil physics. He is also involved in the experimental and theoretical analysis of reactive solute transport in soils and aquifers, including the development of hydrogeophysical measurement techniques for non-invasive detection of solute transport, as well as data fusion methods.

Contact: Harry VEREECKEN
Infrastructures: HIOS - HIES - Modelling platform
TNA site: Eifel

GERMANY: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

The Institute For Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU) is part of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology which belongs to the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers. The current main research activities of IMK-IFU concentrate on major regional and local environmental problems that are in the center of public interest, i.e. interactions between biosphere-hydrosphere-atmosphere processes and global changes (land use, climate). IMK-IFU will contribute to EXPEER with its  long-term monitoring program of exchange processes at permanent field sites (forest station Höglwald, lysimeter net.work TERENO-Alpine), and development and application of process-oriented models for the simulation of biosphere-hydrosphere-atmosphere exchange processes as well as for the derivation of efficient mitigation and/or adaptation measures.

People involved: 

• Prof. Dr. Klaus BUTTERBACH-BAHL. Leader of the department Atmosphere-Biosphere Interactions and Global Change at IMK-IFU and principal investigator or coordinator in several national and international research projects (e.g. DFG research group MAGIM, NITROEUROPE), he has long-term experiences in the quantification of biosphere-atmosphere GHG exchange at various spatial and temporal scales.
• Dr. Nicolaus BRÜGGEMANN. Leader of the stable isotope facilities at IMK-IFU and principal investigator in several national and international research projects (e.g. ENTRANCE), he has a great reputation for using stable isotopes for clarifying ecosystem processes.
• Dr. Ralf KIESE. Principal investigator in several national and international projects (e.g. DFG research group Kilimandjaro) and responsible for the lysimeter network within TERENO Alpine, he has an outstanding reputation with regard to the development of biogeochemical models for the simulation of biosphere-atmosphere-hydrosphere exchange processes under varying environmental conditions.

Contact: Klaus BUTTERBACH-BAHL
Infrastructures: HIES - Modelling platform
TNA site: Höglwald forest

GERMANY: Technische Universität München (TUM)

The Technical University of Munich covers a large spectrum of fundamental and applied research with studies ranging from engineering, natural sciences, including life and medical sciences, as well as ecology and agriculture to economics. Life and Food Sciences, Land Use and Environment are three future-orientated fields of research that are at the centre of work carried out by the scientists at the Weihenstephan Science Centre, guaranteeing the quality and quantity of food for human consumption while simultaneously protecting ecological, economical and social resources in accordance with the central theme of 'sustainability'. The soil science unit of TUM, together with hydrogeology at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (FSU) is providing a platform for new soil system analysis techniques with a specific focus on the use of advanced spectroscopic and spectro-microscopic imaging and mapping techniques.

People involved: 

• Prof. Dr. Ingrid KÖGEL-KNABNER. With her team, she will coordinate the soil system analysis task at the soil science unit in Freising-Weihenstephan. Her field of expertise is soil science, with a strong focus on soil organic matter and the application of analytical techniques in her goal to improve the understanding of soil systems and their response to changing environmental conditions. Ongoing research activities include formation and structure of organic matter in long-term agroecosystem experiments, organic matter pools as indicator of soil stability, initial stages of SOM formation, role of OM in the formation and properties of biogeochemical interfaces in soils. Her research vision is to contribute to the understanding of soil systems with respect to role of biogeochemical heterogeneity and aggregate hierarchy for the sorption, retardation and residence time of major soil constituents and role of soil genesis for the expression of soil functions.

Contact: Ingrid KÖGEL-KNABNER
Infrastructures: Analytical platform

GERMANY: Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GMBH (UFZ)

The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) investigates the complex interactions between humans and the environment in cultivated and damaged landscapes. The research group for ExpeER includes the department of Community Ecology (DCE) which focus on spatial, temporal, process and pattern analysis and effects of natural and anthropogenic structural changes on biological communities and the department of Soil Ecology (DSE) which works on functions of microorganisms in soil genesis, their roles in energy and matter, and identification of key elements in soil microbial communities. The department Monitoring and Exploration Technologies (DMET) develops monitoring approaches to adequately characterise natural systems.

People involved:  

• Francois BUSCOT. Head of DSE, full professor for Terrestrial Ecology at the University of Leipzig and co-coordinator for the Global Change Experimental Facility of the UFZ, his main research fields are ecology of soil fungi and mycorrhizas.
• Mark FRENZEL. Senior Scientist at DCE, his main research fields are animal ecology with a particular interest in the role of phytophagous insects and their associations with host plants.
• Stefan KLOTZ. Head of DCE and co-coordinator of the Global Change Experimental Facility (an infrastructure investment for ecosystem research at UFZ), his main research fields are plant ecology, macro-ecology, relations of biodiversity and land use, biological invasions.
• Ingolf KÜHN. Senior Scientist at DCE, his main research fields are distribution and diversity patterns of plant species and their traits in relation to environmental factors at various spatial scales, and their relationships to fragmentation, biological invasions, and climate change.
• Josef SETTELE. Adjunct Professor of Ecology at the University of Halle (Germany) and co-ordinator of several large projects, his main interest are impacts of climate change, and land use on biodiversity.  
• Jutta STADLER. Senior Scientist at DCE, she has a focus on plant ecology, biodiversity and land use, succession and disturbance experiments.
• Steffen ZACHARIAS. Post-Doc at DMET and coordinator of the installation of the Global Change Observatory TERENO-UFZ, his main research fields are soil water related processes, solute transport in soil and soil-plant interactions.

Contact: Stefan KLOTZ
Infrastructures: HIOS - HIES - Modelling platform
TNA site: Harz/Central German Lowland

GERMANY: Universitaet Potsdam (UP)

The University of Potsdam is the largest university in the German state of Brandenburg, with a current enrolment of almost 19,000 students. With the university and more than 20 extramural research institutes, Potsdam is one of the leading centres of science in Germany. The Institute of Biochemistry and Biology at the University of Potsdam has an excellent reputation for ecological research. Several research groups cover a wide range of research areas from plant and animal ecology to aquatic, physiological and theoretical ecology. The Biodiversity Research/Botany group coordinates the Biodiversity Exploratories, a system of large-scale and long-term research sites for functional biodiversity research, and a unique open platform for collaborative biodiversity research. Currently there are more than 150 ecologists involved in 40 subprojects of the Biodiversity Exploratories.

People involved: 

• Prof. Markus FISCHERIS. Responsible for the Biodiversity Exploratories, he is a plant ecologist with ample experience in experimental and functional biodiversity research.
• Dr. Simone PFEIFFER, Dr. Andreas Hemp, Dr. Daniel Prati and Dr. Oliver Bossdorf. All post-docs in the Biodiversity Exploratories, are very experienced plant ecologists and biodiversity researchers.

Contact: Markus FISCHERIS
Infrastructures: HIOS - HIES
TNA site: Biodiversity Exploratories

HUNGARY: MTA Okologiai es Botanikai Kutatointezete (IEB)

The Institute of Ecology and Botany of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is doing ecological research in terrestrial and aquatic habitats and is managing the KISKUN LTER site (an LTSER platform). The department of Plant Ecology is focusing on plant ecology in terrestrial habitats, biodiversity monitoring and vegetation assessment. IEB will provide different material resources such as : KISKUN LTER Field Station VULCAN – Climate Change Simulation Field Experiment Station MÉTA – Landscape Ecological Vegetation Database & M ap of Hungary CoenoDAT – and National Database of Plant Sociology Records.

People involved:  

• Miklós KERTÉSZ. Head of department of Plant Ecology and coordinator of Hungarian LTER Network, his main research fields are diversity-production relations and vegetation mapping.
• György KRÖEL-DULAY. Head of team Ecological Effects of Climate and Land Use Change and coordinator of KISKUN LTER, his main interest are field experiments on vegetation dynamics and vegetation mapping.

Contact: Miklós KERTÉSZ
Infrastructures: HIOS

ITALY: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)

CNR is the largest public research organization in Italy. The laboratories of IBIMET (Biometeorology), IBAF (Agroenvironmental and Forest Biology), IPP (Plant Protection) and IGV (Pant genetics) have more than 200 scientist staff members and their activity ranges from climatology to sustainability, eco-physiology, genomic, metabolomic and carbon cycle research. The laboratories run long-term experimental facilities in different ecosystems, three of which are part of LTER-Italy and Europe networks. The main activity of the groups involved deals with ecological and flux measurements using a range of different techniques, both field- and lab-based, airborne flux measurement, remote sensing, land use change, plant adaptation to climate change, tolerance/resistance to extreme events, forest management, metabolomic, genomic and reactive trace gas measurements.
CNR groups involved in this project are and were participants in a number of EU FP projects including ALTERNet NoE, CarboEurope-IP, NitroEurope-IP, C-Extreme, CarboAfrica, CIRCE-IP, ACCENT, SIBAE, VOCBAS, GHG-Europe and LIFE+ projects such as FutMon and EnvEurope. IBIMET also operate the BIOLABS Infrastructure in the EU-IMECC project. CNR aircraft fleet is part of EUFAR (European Fleet of Aircraft for Research), which is one the VII° Framework Infrastructures. The laboratories will contribute to EXPEER by providing coordination of the Transnational Access Workpackages, by contributing infrastructures to the TAs and by providing expertise and training sites to disseminate parameter methods/standards and protocols for field monitoring and experimentation.

People involved:  

• Rita BARALDI (IBIMET). Senior scientist and participant of EU-Projects, he has long experience in ecophysiology and on biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emission.
• Enrico BRUGNOLI (IBAF). Research directorand participant of EU-Projects, he has experience on photosynthesis and stable isotope composition of plants ; and ecosystems and agricultural products.
• Bruno DE CINTI (IBAF). Technical scientist, he has experience in forest monitoring and biomass/NPP measurement and field infrastructures in forest long-term experimental sites.
• Francesco LORETO (IPP). Research director working on biosphere-atmosphere interactions. Coordinator of EU-Projects and of a EU large scale infrastructure analytical facility for BVOC.
• Giorgio MATTEUCCI (ISAFOM/IBAF), scientist, with long experience in forest ecology and monitoring, flux and biomass/NPP measurement. Member of the Coordination Committee of LTER- Italy.
• Franco MIGLIETTA (IBIMET) Research Director, with relevant experience in environmental physiology and carbon cycle research. EU-Project management expertise as both coordinator and participant.
• Francesca RAPPARINI (IBIMET), scientist working on BVOC emission from vegetation at plant and ecosystem scale.
• Francesco VACCARI (IBIMET) scientist, with experience monitoring, flux and biomass/NPP measurement in agroecosystems.

Contact: Franco MIGLIETTA (alsoresponsible of WP6)
Infrastructures: HIOS - HIES - Ecotron - Modelling platform - Analytical platform
TNA sites: Bologna / Roma-Lecceto

ITALY: Università degli Studi di Torino (UNITO)

The Department of Agronomy, Forest and Land Management is part of the University of Turin, a large Institution accounting for 1.800 professors, 2.200 technicians and administrative employees, and 65.000 students. The main Department research activities are focused on management options of crops, forages and forests in order to achieve a sustainable equilibrium between environmental quality (air, water and soil quality, biodiversity) and production (food/feed/wood quality and yield). The Tetto Frati Long Term Platform (TF-LTEP) is a plot-based experimental site aimed at studying soil C and N turnover, balance and effects on plant growth and yield; soil fertility; mineral and organic (farmyard manure, bovine slurry) fertilizer efficiency; water and mineral N dynamics through soil; GHGs emissions from soil; microbial diversity, in different maize-based forage systems. - TF-LTEP website

People involved:    

• Chiara BERTORA. Ph.D. student, she studies gaseous emissions from soils and is expert  in using the TF-LTEP.
• Carlo GRIGNANI. Full professor and head of the Department, he is a member of the team that started the LTEP in 1992 and is actually the scientific coordinator of the LTEP.
• Stefano MONACO. Ph.D. student, he is expert in soil organic matter dynamics and in modelling the fate of the soil organic matter in the TF-LTEP.
• Dario SACCO. Permanent researcher, he is working on the LTEP since 1993. His expertises are N cycle, simulation modelling and applied statistics to ecology and agronomy.
• Laura ZAVATTARO. Permanent technician, she is working on the LTEP since 1994. Her expertises are N cycle, geostatistics and soil hydrology.

Contact: Laura Zavattaro
TNA site: Tetto Frati 

ITALY: Università degli Studi di Udine (UNIUD)

The “Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie ed Ambientali” (Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Department, DISA-UNIUD) is part of the University of Udine and is divided in 6 different sections of the most relevant agricultural and environmental areas (http://www.disa.uniud.it). The department employs 46 professors, 15 technicians and other 100 persons among post-docs, Phd-studends and visiting scientists. The Dept. will be involved in the TA activity.

People involved:    

• Dr. Giorgio ALBERTI, researcher. He took part in European and US projects concerning with carbon fluxes associated with different forest and agricultural managements. He also took part in long term manipulation experiments to assess the response of Mediterranean ecosystems to climate change.
• Dr. Ilaria INGLIMA, post-doc. She took part in several European projects. Her field of research includes soil biogeochemistry and the use of isotopes discrimination to assess organic matter dynamics.
• Prof. Alessandro PERESSOTTI, associate professor. He leads work packages in several EU projects such as CarbonPro, MIND, Popface. He leads some EU projects ( BEBI financed by ACP Science and Technology Programme). His field of research includes eco-physiology and ecosystem responses to global climate change.
• Dr. Gemini DELLE VEDOVE, researcher. He leads National research projects on impact of agricultural management and land use on greenhouse gases emissions.
• Dr. Costanza ZAVALLONI, post-doc. She took part in several European and US projects. Her field of research includes eco-physiology and ecosystem responses to global climate change (i.e. temperature and CO₂ increase).

Contact: Alessandro PERESSOTTI
Infrastructures: HIES
TNA site: Beano

ISRAEL: Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU)

The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research are the environmental institutes of BGU. They are a blend of 90 scientists, 60 technical and administrative staff members, and over 150 Israeli and foreign research students have the capacity to perform basic and applied research related to “Dryland ecosystem Sciences". Activities cover basic and applied research in: Environmental physics: desert meteorology, remote sensing and solar energy, Water sciences and technology: water resource management, wastewater treatment and bioremediation. Ecosystem ecology: community ecology, conservation biology and environmental management. Plant and animal physiology in agro ecosystems, rangelands and aquaculture. Cellular and molecular biology with application to biotechnologies and environmental pollutions. Social sciences and architecture including regional planning and human ecology in drylands.

People involved:    

• Dr. Bertrand BOEKEN. He is Plant and rangeland ecologist: Main interests: plant community dynamics, community structure and ecosystem function and land use and landscape function.    
• Dr. Elli GRONER. She is Insect ecologist. Main interests: biodiversity, food webs structure and function, landscape ecology and ecosystem management.
• Prof. Arnon KARNIELI. He is Remote sensing in ecology. Main interests: phonology, ecosystem production, climate and land use changes and ecosystem structure and function and ecohydrology.
• Prof. Ehud MERON. He is Theoretical ecologists: mathematical modelling, pattern formation in ecosystems, biodiversity, desertification, bio-complexity and organisms as ecosystem engineers.
• Prof. Moshe SHACHAK. He is Desert Ecologist. Main interests: watershed ecology, system ecology patch theory, organisms as ecosystem engineers, ecosystem management and ecohydrology.

Contact: Arnon KARNIELI
Infrastructures: HIOS - HIES - Modelling platform
TNA site: Negev

NORWAY: Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research (Bioforsk)

Bioforsk conducts applied and specifically targeted research linked to multifunctional agriculture and rural development, plant sciences, environmental protection and natural resource management.
Involvement in ExpeER : Bioforsk will based on experience from ecological research, running of experimental field sites and leading national initiative on the establishment of advanced climate controlled in vitro-facility contribute to the project by leading WP1.

People involved:   

• Helen K. FRENCH’s main area of research is water and solute transport in heterogeneous subsurface. She has experience with design of detailed field experimental sites and the use of geophysical techniques. She is the coordinator of the EU project SoilCAM : Soil Contamination: Advanced integrated characterisation and time-lapse Monitoring.
• Audun KORSÆTH works with Carbon and Nitrogen cycling in agroecosystems, modelling, cropping system analyses, plant nutrition, the use of remote sensing in precision agriculture. Has since 1995 been in charge of Apelsvoll experimental field site.
• Lillian ØYGARDEN coordinates Bioforsk Climate research on agricultural production systems, cultural landscapes, green house gases, and environmental research related to runoff in landscapes and diffuse pollution.
• Trond RAFOSS is head of the Bioclimatic modelling and risk assessment group at Bioforsk Plant Health. He is running the Agrometeorological service constituting 80 electronic weather stations throughout Norway. He is appointed as a member of the Plant Health Panel in the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
• Daniel RASSE works with terrestrial C cycling and ecosystem responses to climate change and has co-developed the ASPECTS. He is chairing the MOLTER networking program of the European Science Foundation. He has initiated the first Eddy covariance tower in mainland Norway and has conducted research at the US LTER.

Contact: Helen K. FRENCH (also responsible of WP1)
Infrastructures: HIOS - HIES - Ecotron - Modelling platform
TNA site: Apelsvoll

POLAND: Europejskie Regionalne Centrum Ekohydrologii pod auspicjami UNESCO, Miedzynarodowy (ERCE)

ERCE, the European Regional Center for Ecohydrology, is an international institute of Polish Academy of Sciences launched in 2006 on the basis of agreement between the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, and the Government of Poland and the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Scientific profile of the Centre includes: ecohydrology, hydrobiology, environmental chemistry, ecology of rivers, reservoirs and wetlands, soil ecology, phytotechnology, ecotoxicology, population studies, mathematical modelling of ecosystem processes and landscape processes. ERCE specialises in trans-disciplinary research projects focused on developing system solutions for environment management in urban and rural areas, facilitation of the implementation process and communication in multi-stakeholder platform.
ERCE will provide expertise in ecohydrology, including: i) methods for monitoring of key variables and parameters within the different compartments of ecosystems with special focus on freshwater, biogeochemical processes, up-scaling and adapting system solutions in space (and time) ii) relevant monitoring and experimental sites of ERCE/DEA UL and expertise and facilities of Polish LTER, iii) methodology in communication within the multi-stakeholder platforms and facilitation of system solution implementation, iv) link to the Central and Eastern European LTER countries.

People involved:    

• Dr Agata DROBNIEWSKA : soil bioremediation, phytoremediation and bioenergy, freshwater ecosystems biomonitoring and ecotoxicology including effect of pollutants on bacteria, invertebrates and plants, the toxicity analyses of soil and sediments.
• Dr Kinga KRAUZE : fish ecology, river ecology, use of fish as indicators of river ecological status, implementation of ecohydrological measures at landscape scale for sustainability of river systems, socio-economic drivers of landscape transformation and biodiversity change. Vice-chair of LTER Europe, Deputy Lead of LTER Europe Expert Panel on Science Strategy.
• Dr Katarzyna IZYDORCZYK : cyanobacteria ecology, phytoplankton succession, implementation ecohydrological processes in reservoir rehabilitation.
• Dr Iwona WAGNER : ecohydrological processes of nutrient transportation and retention in freshwater ecosystems, ecohydrology of urban areas, influence of decision making process on management of water resources. Vice Director of ERCE IIPAS, Member of a Special IHP-VII Task Force Group, UNESCO
• Prof. Maciej ZALEWSKI : ecohydrology, long-term research in ecology with emphasis in developing a holistic perspective towards sustainable conservation and management of ecosystems. Director of ERCE, Chairman of the Steering Committee of Programme "Ecohydrology", Project 2.3/2.4 in 1996-2006, Member of Advisory Board of Ministry of Environment for Water Resources Management, Member of the Committee of Ecology, Polish Academy of Sciences

Infrastructures: HIOS
Contact: Kinga KRAUZE

ROUMANIA: Universitatea din Bucaresti (UB)

The Department of Systems Ecology and Sustainability (UNIBUC-DSES) of the University of Bucarest consists of i) the Masters and Doctoral School in Systems Ecology and Sustainability and ii) the research centre which integrates laboratories and their logistics from Bucharest and two fields stations located in Sinaia (Southern Carpathians) and Braila (Lower Danube River). In the last 10 years the department has received international visibility and credibility through its involvement in European networks and projects including ERMAS 1 and 2, NICOLAS, EMERGE, DANUBS, EVALUWET, SOBIO, ALTER-NET, EUROLIMPACS, AQUAMONEY. DSES-UNIBUC is playing a catalytic and leading role in the development of the national network of teams and platforms for long term and multi- and trans-disciplinary research on local and subregional socio- ecological complexes (SEcS – RO/NURC/2005-2008). The staff have expertise in research on biological and ecological mechanisms and processes for understanding and modeling the dynamics of the structure, productivity and resilience of different ecological systems; applied research dealing with: rehabilitation and reconstruction of landscapes for diffuse pollution control and biodiversity conservation in rural areas; wetlands conservation and restoration; biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems; development and management of the network of protected areas; social and economic analysis of the ecosystem functions.

People involved:    

• Cazacu CONSTANTIN. PhD in Ecology. His research experience is focused on: dynamics and productivity of freshwater ecosystems especially zooplankton communities, eutrophication and its impact, the functional role of wetland, zooplankton population dynamics, and development of integrated management plans. He has a strong background in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) use as well as in the use of different modeling tools.
• Adamescu CRISTIAN MIHAI. PhD in Ecology. His research experience is focused on: dynamics and productivity of freshwater ecosystems, eutrophication and its impact, the functional role of wetland, phytoplankton population dynamics, development of integrated management plans, biodiversity conservation options.
• Elena PREDA, PhD in Ecology. Her scientific expertise is in the field of water quality assessment, evaluation of ecosystem functions and services and biodiversity indicators.
• Angheluta VADINEANU. University Professor and Head of UNIBUC-DSES. His research and management activities have been focused on: dynamics of the structure and productivity of Lower Danube River System (LDRS), identification and management of the Romanian ecological network, population dynamics and energy budget, and, more recently on socio- economic analysis of biodiversity, development of science-policy interface, ecosystem and landscapes functions, conceptual and analytical modelling of Socio-Ecological Complexes.            

Contact: Angheluta VADINEANU
TNA site: Braila Islands

SERBIA: Univerzitet u Novom Sadu (UNS)

BioSense Center at the University of Novi Sad is a multidisciplinary research center devoted to ecosystems monitoring, development and application of ICT concepts, methods and tools in agriculture, forestry, ecology and environmental engineering (research center with 38 persons).

People involved: 

• Prof. Dr Vladimir Crnojević (Faculty of Technical Sciences) - Communications and Signal Processing research in the field of application of Wireless Sensor Networks and Remote Sensing in BIO fields.
• Prof. Dr Saša Orlovi ć (Institute of Lowland Forestry and Environment) - Devoted to research and development of new technologies in the field of forestry, biodiversity, genetics, tree breeding, biomass production and monitoring of forest ecosystems.
• Prof. Dr Ante Vujić (Faculty of Sciences)- Long term investigations on taxonomy, systematics, zoogeography, fauna and flora on the Balkan Peninsula; research on some taxonomic groups, has resulted in a comprehensive database, useful in rapid assessment of both local and European- level issues relating to habitat and microhabitat.    

Contact: Ante Vujić
Infrastructures: HIOS - HIES
TNA site: Fruška gora

SLOVEKIA: Statne Lesy Tanapu (SL TANAP)

The Research station of Tatra National Park was established in 1953 with the main objective – to study and document processes in pristine part of the Tatra Mts nature and to apply this knowledge in rehabilitation of degraded parts (especially forest) caused by former overuse (grazing, logging) and natural disturbances. In 1980s research activities focused on pollution impact, in 1990s on global change as large scale forest dieback occurred. Intensive forest health, atmospheric deposition and meteorological monitoring was established, later one of these plots became ICP Forest II. In late 1990s RS TANAP worked out a risk assessment for the Tatra Mts forest and large scale destruction was forecasted. In 2004 the area on a lee side of the Tatra Mts was heavily impaired by downslope wind. Seminatural/natural spruce forest was laid down on 12 000 ha (wood volume 2.3 mil m3). This event initiated international interdisciplinary ecological research on large- scale windfall consequences under different management approaches (managed versus unmanaged) coordinated by the Research station. Reserach station staff is responsible for meteo data (radiation, wind, temperature, precipitation – quantity and quality, soil respiration, soil moisture and temperature, heat flux), vegetation, natural regeneration, litter, carbon stock, small mammals, and bark beetle insect. Partners (more than 25 institutions) concentrate on different components of forest ecosystem e.g. microscopic soil fauna, soil physical and chemical properties, hydrology – water balance, chemistry, water biota, different terrestrial groups of insect, birds and mammals, dendrochronology.

People involved:    

• Dr. Peter FLEISCHER. Research station of TANAP, disturbance ecology, operates meteorological stations, soil respiration Assoc. Prof. Strelcova Katarina, Technical University Zvolen, sap flow, energy balance.    
• Prof Jan HOLEKSA. Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, specialist in dendrochronology. His research interest also involves role of death wood for regeneration of forest, nature close forestry, forest services.
• Prof. Oto MAJZLAN. Comeniana  University Bratislava, entomologist, specialized in different epigeic insect families, forest disturbance indicator species.
• Prof. Jaroslav ŠKVARENINA. Technical University Zvolen , bioclimatologist, climate change scenarios, impact on mountain forest, forest services, mitigations.

Contact: Peter FLEISCHER
TNA site: Tatra Windstorm

SPAIN: Agencia Estatal Censejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC)

CSIC is the major institution devoted to research and science in Spain. With 126 centres and 145 associated units all around the country, CSIC approaches scientific and technological research through 8 knowledge areas. ICTS-Doñana belongs to Doñana Biological Station, the leading CSIC centre on Natural Resources area, supporting and implementing the long term ecological monitoring and research of Doñ ana Natural Space. ICTS-Doñ ana has since 2004 implemented a national a nd trans-national access to its on-site facilities to scientist from many countries and it will contribute by providing access to more scientists interested in working in Doñ ana using the huge amount of available long-term data and developing new research lines.

People involved:  

• Ricardo DIAZ-DELGADO. PhD. Technical Head of RS & GIS lab. Technical Head of ICTS-Doñ ana. Devoted to upscaling plant ecophysiology to landscape scale through remote sensing and understanding of landscape dynamics.
• Juan José NEGRO. PhD. Scientific Tenure. His main research is devoted to animal physiology and behaviour in relation to biological conservation
• Ramon C. SORIGUER. PhD. Scientific Tenure. Main research on ecological implications of herbivory and emergent diseases in relation to biological conservation.
• Juan Manuel INFANTE. PhD. Postdoctoral scientist. Main research developed about plant physiology, plant trade-offs and water-energy fluxes between plant-soil-atmosphere.

Contact: Ricardo DIAZ-DELGADO
TNA site: Doñana

SWEDEN: Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH)

The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) is responsible for one-third of Sweden’s capacity for engineering studies and technical research at post-secondary level. Our university has over 12,000 undergraduate students, 1,600 active postgraduate students and a staff of 3,000 people. See official website of the university on www.kth.se for more information.
The Environmental physics group belongs to the Land and Water Engineering department that is part of the School of Architecture and the Built Environment at the Royal Institute of Technology. The group has a special focus on development and use of CoupModel as process oriented bio-geophysical model.
Coupmodel is the latest development based on previous SOIL and SOILN models, one-dimensional abiotic and biotic process-based ecosystem model calculating energy and mass transfer in different compartments of layered soil profile, vegetation, and atmosphere.
The model has been used extensively during the latest 30 years. A wide range of applications within hydrology, soil science, biogeophysics related to environmental changes. Especially the connection to climate change and climate variability and the corresponding abiotic and biotic components has been in focus for a number of different climate regions from semi-arid regions, wetlands and boreal areas. Key subjects are winter related processes of snow and frost in the soil, water balance and evapotranspiration of different land use, soil surface evaporation, nitrogen leaching and nitrogen turnover in ecosystems, soil carbon processes, greenhouse gas emissions, irrigation with saline water, effects of road salt applications.
CoupModel graphical user interface (GUI) updated recently to make pre-processing and post-processing much more user friendly and adaptable to windows7. The latest version interface, tutorials, complete help library and detailed manual is available here.
The group is also responsible for further development of modeling techniques within ExpeER with a special focus on establishment of a database of both model structures and model parameters linked to measurement data via uncertainty calibration methods.
The model has a user-group that is administrated from KTH as an interactive forum for the users.

People involved:    

• Prof Per-Erik JANSSON is leader of the group and has been keeping a key role in development of mathematical models including their implementation into user-friendly software.
• David GUSTAFSSON. PhD, he is working within the group on winter related processes and statistical assimilation method.
• Leila P KASMAEI. Research Engineer, she is working with the group on environmental modeling related processes and educational documentation.

Contact: Per-Erik JANSSON
Infrastructures: HIES - Modelling platform

SWEDEN: Lunds Universitet (ULUND)

The Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystems Analysis (INES) conducts internationally recognized research on a range of contemporary issues relating to the interactions between ecosystems and the climate system. The key participants in the present project proposal lead the research group Ecosystem Modelling and Biodiversity Studies (EMBERS). Models developed by the group or in the context of its international collaborations (FORSKA2, BIOME3, STASH, LPJ- DGVM, LPJ-GUESS) are used throughout the world and cited in hundreds of publications. In ExpeER, the team will contribute to the development and evaluation of model components and/or methodology to account for feedbacks of vegetation dynamics and species interactions on ecosystem biogeochemistry, based particularly on LPJ-GUESS, a process-based dynamic vegetation/ecosystem model based on neighbourhood-scale interactions among individual plants (Smith et al. 2001; Hickler et al. 2004; Wramneby et al. 2008). ULUND will participate in the development of the dynamic vegetation model and the development of the model toolbox.

People involved:  

• Benjamin SMITH (Associate Professor, PhD 1996) ecologist and ecosystem modeller, role of population and community processes in controlling ecosystem dynamics. Main developer of LPJ- GUESS (Smith et al. 2001), co-author of the dynamic global vegetation model LPJ (Sitch et al. 2003). Manager and coordinator of several national and international research programmes.
• Martin T. SYKES (Professor, PhD 1987) experimental and theoretical ecology, plant ecology and responses of vegetation and biodiversity to climate change. Application of stand-scale and global dynamic vegetation models. Coordinated and contributed to several EU projects.
• Thomas HICKLER (PhD 2004) ecologist, functioning of terrestrial ecosystems from genes to physiological and ecosystem processes, LPJ-GUESS model development. Involved in international DIVERSITAS.

Contact: Benjamin SMITH
Infrastructures: HIOS - Modelling platform

SWITZERLAND: Eidgenoessisches Volkswirtschaftsdepartement (FDEA-ART)

The Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon Research Station ART belongs to the Federal Department of Economic Affairs (FDEA-ART) and is part of the three Agroscope research units with more than 900 employees. ART conducts research into environmentally compatible and economically competitive farming, develops and assesses sustainable plant-production with a highly diverse rural area. The Department of Natural Resources and Agriculture focuses research on negative environmental impacts on air, soil and water by agricultural management and develops mitigation strategies. ART will provide the long term DOK experiment as research infrastructure to the project, providing long term data for partners and develop methodologies for assessing the N cycle in agricultural ecosystems.

People involved:  

• Dr. Jochen MAYER is an expert in plant nutrition and soil plant-interactions. His research focused mainly on rhizosphere processes and C and N cycles in low input cropping systems. His expertise comprises a profound knowledge in 15N, 13C, 14C experimentation and analysis and soil microbial processes. Since beginning of 2008 he is the responsible coordinator for the DOK long term experiment at ART and other long term arable farming experiments.
• Dr. Christine BOSSHARD is an expert in N cycles in agricultural systems, mineralisation-immobilisation turnover and organic fertilization. She has a profound knowledge in 15N labelling studies, gross and net mineralisation processes and C and N sequestration in agricultural soils. The Air Pollution – Climate group at ART (Dr. Albrecht Neftel, Dr. Christof Amman) has experiences in more than 20 years of trace gas research (N 2O, NH3 measurement), C sequestration and modelling studies (Dr. Jens Leifeld). The group is involved in several international projects on C and N gas fluxes and C sequestration as Green Grass (EU FP4), Carbo Europe (EU FP5, Nitro Europe (EU FP6).

Contact  Jochen MAYER
Infrastructures: HIES - Analytical platform

SWITZERLAND: Forschungsinstitut für Biologischenlandbau Stiftung (FiBL)

The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) is one of the world’s leading organic farming research and technology transfer centres dedicated to sustainable agricultural systems. The Soil Science Devision (SSD) focused on studying the effects of agricultural production systems and their components on soil fertility as well as on environmental impacts. FiBL, in collaboration with Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon (ART), will contribute by its long-term DOK system comparison which will be used as a platform for multidisciplinary research, and will contribute to a common open data base.

People involved: 

• Dr. Paul MADER (SSD) has 20 years R&D experience in arable crop system comparison and optimisation for sustainable farming. He is the co-ordinator of the DOK experiment at FiBL and manages additionally as series of long-term experiments dedicated to conservation tillage. He is an expert in crop nutrition as related to mycorrhizal root symbioses. He is/was involved in 5 projects funded by the EC, manages two projects funded by government and is involved in INDO-SWISS collaboration, with a total value of €0.7 M per yea r, and has >100 publications.
• Dr. Andreas FLIESSBACH (SSD) is a soil microbiologist, working for 15 years in soil carbon cycling as related to microbial diversity. He has an extensive experience in isotopic analyses (C-14, C-13, N-15), and in microbial community analyses.

Contact: Paul MADER
Infrastructures: HIES - Analytical platform
TNA site: Therwil

SWITZERLAND: Eidgenoessische Forschungsanstalt (WSL)

The WSL Research Unit Forest Ecosystem Processes (WSL-FEP) addresses the impact of natural and anthropogenic environmental changes on the nutrient and carbon fluxes in forests, the hydrological cycle within forests and on forest ecosystem health and is located at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL. To this end the WSL-FEP Research Unit studies the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nutrients and their long-term trends using long-term studies, large-scale surveys, as well as field and laboratory experiments. It also addresses the quantitative effects of forest growth on regional carbon, nutrient and water fluxes and develops methods to quantify resource pools and fluxes in forest ecosystems on different scales. The outcomes of this research allow the development of scenarios to assess and model the risk linked to regional and global anthropogenic changes, including nutrient and pollution deposition, climate change, carbon dioxide increase and changes in forest management, on forest (ecosystem) health, in both, the short and long run.

People involved:  

• Dr. Werner EUGSTER. from the Institute for Plant Sciences at the ETH Zurich is the person in charge for topics about eddy covariance and climatology.        
• Dr. Marcus SCHAUB. head of the WSL-FEP Research Group, is working on the mechanistic and multi-causal interrelationships between environmental stressors and forest ecosystem responses. Dr. Roman Zweifel, is in charge of the Seehornwald reasearch site, Davos, Switzerland and WSL-contact person for general site coordination requests and topics about ecology and tree physiology.

Contact: Marcus SCHAUB
TNA site: Seehornwald

THE NETHERLANDS: Vereniging voor Christelijk Hoger Onderwijs Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek en Patientenzorg (VUA)

The University Amsterdam (VUA) is a middle-sized Dutch University with about 19000 students and 4000 employees, focusing amongst others on the quality and use of the environment, now and for future generations. The department of Systems Ecology studies how climate change affects the interactions between vegetation, soil, hydrosphere and atmosphere using a systems ecological approach. The VU University Amsterdam and the department of Systems Ecology will given open access to their research facilities in northern Sweden and they will provide the manpower and the technical facilities there to ensure high-quality research of other researchers. We will contribute to the project by making our climate manipulation site in northern Sweden available to the project. This involves a long-term (since 2000) experiment in which we manipulate temperatures (in spring and/or summer) and winter snow depth, yielding six experimental climate change scenarios. We have records on many biotic and abiotic parameters of the 10 years that this experiment is running now.

People involved: 

• Prof.dr. Rien AERTS. Systems Ecology, Climate Change, Plant-Atmosphere Interactions
• Dr. P.M. van BODEGOM. Soil Science, Ecological Modeling, Climate Change, Microbial Ecology
• Dr. J.H.C. CORNELISSEN. Plant Ecology, Cold biomes, Climate Change, Plant Traits
• Prof.dr. J. ROZEMA. Ecophysiology, Climate Change, Saline Agriculture, Climatic Proxies

Contact: Rien AERTS
Infrastructures: HIOS - HIES

UK: Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (Imperial)

Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial College London is a science- based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research. The Centre for Population Biology is a NERC funded collaborative centre, established in 1989 to increase knowledge of how ecological systems function. NERC Centre for Population Biology contribution is marked by making available a unique experimental facility for controlled ecological experiments, ”The Ecotron”.

People involved:  

• Professor Georgina MACE CBE FRS is Professor of Conservation Science and Director of the NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College, London. Her research focuses on the assessment of biodiversity and the effects of extinction pressures on species and ecosystems. She has held overall responsibility for the Ecotron and its experiments since 2006. From 2000 to 2006 she was Director of Science at the Zoological Society of London. She was elected to the Royal Society in 2002. From 2000 to 2005 she was a member of NERC’s Science and Innovation Strategy Board. She also chaired the Biodiversity theme group for NERC’s strategy development from 2006-2007 and currently is a member of the NERC-ESRC-DfID Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation Programme Advisory Committee. She has published 30 papers since 2003 including 12 in leading journals (Science, PNAS, Proc B, PLoS Biology).
• Dr. Alexandru MILCU is the Ecotron Facility Project Leader at the NERC Centre for Population Biology. He is a soil ecologist with extensive experience on the interactions between soil invertebrates and vegetation and their consequences for ecosystem functioning. His research interest also include the linkages between the carbon cycle and climate change, closed ecological systems and the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning. He is currently involved the SCALE project and is CO-PI in another project investigating the role of small-scale controlled experiments for predicting the impacts of landscape scale management changes (Lake Vyrnwy project). He published his work in academic peer-reviewed journals and often acts as referee for international journals.

Contact: Alexandru MILCU
Infrastructures: Ecotron - Analytical platform

UK: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology is one of the Research Centres of The UK Natural Environment Research Council with responsibility for terrestrial and freshwater sciences.The NERC team involved in the ExpeER project is drawn from several groups across NERC with experience in long term monitoring and experimental sites, communications activities, databasing and ecosystem models reflecting the breadth of our involvement in the ExpeER project.

People involved: 

• Nicolas BERTRAND has a background in microbiology and biochemistry and now works on environmental data standards and inter-operability across a range of national and European projects. He will be WP leader for WP3 on information management and data access.Andy Sier is a communications scientist and has developed and implemented communications strategies and web-sites for several international projects (ALTER-Net, LTER-Europe, ILTER). He will contribute to work on external communications.
• Eleanor BLYTH is a land surface modeller and is part of the core team developing the community modelling platform JULES. This involves linking the wider modelling and ecosystem community with experience of hydrology, biogeochemical and vegetation dynamics. She will lead a team of specialists within NERC to enhance ecosystem models who have experience in representation of vegetation processes and ecosystem model development application (Doug Clarke, Ed Rowe, James Bullock and David Cooper)
• Bridget EMMETT has more than 20 years experience leading research groups involved in long term monitoring and experimental approaches to environmental change linking through to ecosystem modellers both within and external to NERC. She will be responsible for ensuring the delivery of TA access to experimental field sites with site PIs (Brian Reynolds and Lucy Sheppard) and facilitate links to the ecosystem modelling group (WP9).
• Terry PARR is responsible for the research group specialising in long term monitoring and ecosystem assessment approaches. He is Co-ordinator of the EU Alter-Net Network of Excellence and Chair of the International Long-term Ecological Research Network (ILTER). He will be responsible for ensuring delivery of the NERC Highly Instrumented Observation Sites to the TA activity (with Don Monteith, Rob Rose, Michele Taylor) and will contribute to networking and integration with external organisations (WP4).

Contact: Bridget EMMETT and Nicolas BERTRAND (also responsible of WP3).
Infrastructures: HIOS - HIES - Modelling platform
TNA sites: Moor House / Whim / Plynlimon

UK: University of Southampton (SOTON)

The University of Southampton is ranked in the top ten UK universities with ecosystem research undertaken across the Schools of Oceanography, in Biological Sciences, in Geography and in Civil Engineering and Environment. The School of Biological Sciences will participate in the project with the Ecology and Environment group that is currently being expanded with a £46 million investment to move to the new ‘Institute For Life Sciences’. The university will provide expertise in plant ecology from gene through to manipulative ecosystem experiments, particularly those on trees and grasslands. The university will support the project with outstanding infra-structure and facilities including state of the art molecular and proteomic facilities, a suite of controlled environment rooms and easy access to the Ecotron at Imperial College. 

People involved:  

• Dr Matthew TALLIS. Is a post doctoral research fellow who has wide ranging experience of ecosystem science from work in POPFACE, through to assessing energy balances of the urban environment and in understanding the genomics underpinning changes in phenology occurring as a consequence of rising CO2.
• Professor Gail TAYLOR. Is leader of the ‘Plants and Environment’ laboratory. She has participated in several EU projects working on ecosystems and environment, including as PI on the European Forest FACE experiment, EUROFACE, POPFACE, on understanding trait- gene linkages as coordinator of POPYOMICS and EVOLTREE, the FP6 Network of Excellence for ‘trees as Drivers of Terrestrial Diversity’. Nationally she is a partner in BEGIN, using functional genomics to improve the yield of bioenergy trees, in TSEC-BIOSYS and is also part of a USA Department of Energy project POPGENICS, with experiments to use latest genomics and functional genomics techniques to answer pressing environmental problems.

Contact: Gail TAYLOR
Infrastructures: Analytical platform

UK: Rothamsted Research Limited (Rothamsted Research)

Rothamsted Research is a BBSRC funded Institute which addresses the science issues that underpin sustainable agricultural production, addressing crop breeding, arable and livestock systems, crop protection, and above and below ground ecological processes. The resources involved form part of the Sustainable Soils and Grassland Systems Department (SGS). These include the Long-Term Field Experiments and Sample Archive located at Rothamsted. The Rothamsted Long-Term Experiments are primarily concerned with arable cropping systems, but also include grassland ecology and areas of wilderness. These experiments are located on experimental farms at Rothamsted (Hertfordshire) and Woburn (Bedfordshire). Rothamsted will contribute through access to its long-term experiments and sample archive.

People involved:

• Dr Andrew MACDONALD. Manager of the Rothamsted Long-Term Experiments. Agronomist/Soil Scientist.
• Dr Phil MURRAY. Head of North Wyke. Agro-ecologist.
• Dr Allison VAN DE MEENE. Head of Bioimaging. Microscopist/Cell Biologist.
• Mr Julian FRANKLIN. Head of Horticultural and Controlled Environment Services. Secretary to the UK Controlled Environment Users Group.

Contact: Dr Andrew MACDONALD
Infrastructures: HIES - Modelling platform - Analytical platform
TNA site: Rothamsted

UK: University of Leeds (UNIVLEEDS)

The University of Leeds is one of the largest and most research active universities in the UK, with particular strengths in the biological and environmental sciences, ranking first in funding from the environmental (NERC) research council and second nationally in funding from biological (BBSRC) council. Leeds will lead WP2, and will contribute to WP4 and WP10.

People involved:  

• Dr. Jacobus BIESMEIJER is a RCUK Academic Research Fellow. His work focuses on plant-pollinator interactions and pollinator ecology with most research addressing interdisciplinary socio- economic, ecological and global change issues. Dr Biesmeijer coordinated the ALARM Focal Site Network, is the lead PI on a UK-India collaborative research project linking biodiversity to ecosystem services in India, and is an active participant in the STEP project.
• Dr. Pippa CHAPMAN has worked on biogeochemical processes in upland soils and waters for 20 years. She leads a £330-k NERC grant on DOC and atmospheric deposition and CI on a NERC grant on peatland carbon cycling and on a Sustainable Uplands RELU project.
• Prof. Joseph HOLDEN is catchment hydrologist with expertise in soil and river hydrology. He is PI on NERC, ESRC Yorkshire Water and Royal Society grants on upland hydrology, linking water quality to land management, and is heavily involved the EU FP7 project DESIRE. He received the Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2007 in compelling recognition of outstanding scientific achievement and in 2007 became the youngest Professor in the UK.
• Prof. William KUNIN is Professor of Ecology. His work focuses on spatial aspects of plant population ecology and conservation biology, with particular interest in insect-plant interactions and scaling issues. Prof. Kunin played a major role in the FP6 ALARM project, leads a work package in the EU FP7 SCALES project, and is active in the recently approved FP7 STEP (Status & Trends of European Pollinators) project as well as several UK grants.
• Professor Jon LLOYD is a plant ecophysiologist by training, with extensive experience in the modelling and measurement of terrestrial carbon and water vapour fluxes at the leaf, canopy and global level. Prior to accepting a Centenary Chair at Leeds he held positions at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, and the Australian National University.

Contact: William KUNIN (also responsible of WP2)
Infrastructures: HIOS