 INTERNATIONAL LONG TERM
ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH |
 INTERNATIONAL LONG TERM
ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH |
INTERNATIONAL LONG TERM
ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH
ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH
ILTER Research Initiatives
ILTER intends to foster international collaboration among researchers and maximise the strengths of the global ILTER network of site-based research infrastructures. Therefore, ILTER provides small research grants for compact projects, or for instance as seed grants for larger undertakings, or for supporting thesis or post-doctoral work by young scientists. Previous and ongoing ILTER Scientific Initiatives have covered various research disciplines and topics such as community ecology, biodiversity, biogeochemistry, ecosystem services, socio-ecology, water and material cycles, sustainability and resilience.
Ongoing ILTER Research Initiatives
These Projects were funded through the 2023 call for proposals. Palm species and climate change
Grassland response to drought
Biogeochemistry of Nitrogen
From Plants to Soil
Microbat Monitoring
Palm species and climate change
Palm species’ responses to climate change: long-term research on environmental gradients in the Atlantic Forest (PALMRES)
This Research Initiative aims to evaluate the responses of palm species to climate change, from organisms to community level, toward a complex environmental gradient existent in the ILTER Central Fluminense Mosaic of Parks and Reserves (MCF). By investigating species functional responses, we intend to understand the relative importance of different factors controlling species distribution and describe the functional composition and assembly processes structuring palm communities.
We also intend to evaluate demographic parameters of populations located in different ranges of the elevational gradient and how they will respond (through projections) to long-term changes in climate.
Contact:
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ); PELD-MCF (Brazil)
Grassland response to drought
Microtopography effect on grassland response to extreme drought (TOPOGRASS)
During climate change, long-term changes in the climatic means (pressure) and more frequent extreme events (pulses) have interactive effects on the composition and species richness of vegetation. In this proposed research we investigate the effect of microtopography on sand grassland sensitivity to long-term changes and the unprecedented extreme drought of 2022, which caused mass grass dieback in central Hungary, including the KISKUN LTER site. We hypothesise that the microtopography of sand dunes can spatially diversify the impact of extreme drought. Thus, preserving or restoring microtopography could contribute to the long-term persistence of grasslands in an era of changing climate.
Contact:
Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Hungary
Biogeochemistry of Nitrogen
Monitoring changes in Antarctic Biogeochemistry of Nitrogen (MABN)
In this Research Initiative, we aim to firstly provide a temporal timeline of particulate organic matter-(POM) and diatom-bound (DB)-δ15N measurements from two ILTER sediment traps from the Ross Sea and one from the Antarctic Peninsula. The aim is to reconstruct the degree of nutrient consumption in two different biogeochemical provinces of the Southern Ocean over the last three decades. Secondly, we aim to establish a long term sampling effort of seawater samples for nitrate (NO3-)-δ15N, increasing the potential of this ILTER monitoring station for tracking the changing biogeochemistry of the Southern Ocean in a warming climate.
We aim to combine sediment traps organic matter and seawater samples to generate an extensive observational record of nutrient dynamics covering the past 3 decades. The three ILTER network moorings we target are: 1) Mooring A Ross Sea (DEIMS SDR ID: IT17-001-M), 2) Mooring B Ross Sea (DEIMS SDR ID: IT17-002-M) and 3) PAL LTER in the Antarctic peninsula.
Contact:
Contact:
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Germany)
From Plants to Soil
From Plants to Soil: Legacy effects of global change drivers (FPS)
Broadly, this Research Initiative seeks to understand the legacy effects of global change drivers (e.g., drought) on above- and belowground communities. More specifically, we ask: How do altered precipitation patterns influence plant community dynamics? Do changes in aboveground community structure cascade to soil communities and lead to modified belowground ecosystem function?
The project aims to understand how plant communities maintain productivity under altered climatic conditions and the role of soil microbial communities in dictating overall ecosystem function. It leverages existing infrastructure from ongoing projects (e.g., Climate Extremes Experiment at Konza) to address these objectives.
Contact:
Colorado State University, USA
Microbat Monitoring
Microbat Monitoring for the ILTER-EAP Region (MMEAP)Bats comprise approximately 20% of the world’s mammal biodiversity. Despite their significant ecological roles, bat population dynamics remain poorly understood, with studies often constrained within individual countries rather than defined by relevant biogeographic boundaries. Our initiative will establish the foundation of a multinational microbat monitoring network across ILTER-EAP members (Philippines, Thailand & Vietnam, plus Australia).
The project applies ultrasound recording equipment and provides in-field training to generate baseline data enabling understanding of state and change in bat species populations across relevant spatial scales. This Research Initiative builds on existing Australian-based work utilising new approaches for bat acoustic monitoring and survey.
Contact:
Will Edwards
James Cook University (Australia) & Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) (Australia)
Past ILTER Research Initiatives
A selection of ILTER-funded projects that were finished in or before 2022Citizens for ILTER
Tea Composition
Diversity Stability
Lichens in a net
Sense of place ILTER
ILTER Nitrogen Initiative
Citizens for ILTER
Citizen science (CS), the active engagement of the general public in scientific research, is experiencing an increasing interest in the last decades as a practice in which scientists and citizens collaborate to produce new knowledge for science, society and policy.
Environmental and ecological sciences are most active in proposing CS initiatives, since they necessarily include the social and cultural dimensions to confront the complex local and global environmental challenges. This is particularly evident in the ILTER network, which offers a valuable landscape to explore CS features across a wide range of different cultural and socio-ecological contexts, as well as worldviews of science-society interactions. The "Citizens for ILTER” Research Initiative aimed at assessing two main aspects of CS at ILTER: (i) the features of the ILTER CS initiatives and the level of involvement of the volunteers, and (ii) the attitudes of ILTER scientists about CS. This was achieved through two main tools:
i. a workshop held at the 2019 ILTER Open Science Meeting, where the attending science professionals were asked to create a preliminary list of reasons why scientists would participate in CS, as well as a list of associated challenges;
ii. a survey to the ILTER community, built from the workshop and related literature and inventories, aiming at assessing the main features of ILTER CS initiatives and at examining scientists’ willingness and reasons to participate in CS, the barriers associated with CS, and any impacts of these efforts on them.
The survey results are accessible on Zenodo, while the performed analyses by using the R software are available as open code on GitHub.
The results of this activity have been the object of two papers, submitted to Frontiers in Environmental Science (Environmental Citizen Science section).
The results of this activity have been the object of two papers, published in Frontiers in Environmental Science (Environmental Citizen Science section).
- Bergami C, Campanaro A, Davis C, L’Astorina A, Pugnetti A and Oggioni A (2023), Environmental citizen science practices in the ILTER community: Remarks from a case study at global scale. Front. Environ. Sci. 11:1130020. doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2023.1130020
- L’Astorina A, Davis C, Pugnetti A, Campanaro A, Oggioni A and Bergami C (2023), Scientists’ attitudes about citizen science at Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites. Front. Environ. Sci. 11:1130022. doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2023.1130022
Contact: Caterina Bergami, CNR-ISMAR Italy
All images by Mauro Bastianini, CNR-ISMAR Italy
Tea Composition
Under constructionDiversity Stability
Under constructionLichens in a net
Under constructionSense of place ILTER
Under constructionILTER Nitrogen Initiative
Under constructionCalls for proposals
If you are interested in starting your own ILTER Scientific Initiative, answer one of our calls for proposals. To make certain you do not miss the deadline, sign up to our newsletter. 
