ICP-Forest and FutMon networks core plot.

Herdade da Contenda is one of the six research and monitoring stations of LTER-Montado, an umbrella site located in the Alentejo province in south Portugal (southwestern Iberia). The "Montado" represents an unique agro-silvo-pastoral ecosystem (named "dehesa" in Spain) found only in the Mediterranean basin. These savannah-like landscapes are dominated by evergreen cork and/or holm oaks and were shaped over millennia of traditional land use practices. These multi-use forests are two-layered systems that combine, in a single space, forest harvesting, extensive livestock husbandry, pastures and/or cereal cultivation (the most evident economical revenues), with other traditional uses (hunting, beekeeping and mushroom picking). Recently, increasing awareness arose on their benefits as biodiversity reservoirs, recreation grounds, and other ecosystem services providers, but these non-productive functions are not equally perceived and valued by users, as they tend to be conflicting with productive ones. Herdade da Contenda is a state property located on the far western limit of the Sierra Morena, in the transition to the lowlands of Baixo Alentejo province (Moura Council). The area is limited to the east and the south by the Portuguese – Spanish border and to the north and west by several streams (Arroio, Murtigão and Pais Joanes) tributaries of the Guadiana River (38º 01’ N – 7° 13’W). On Northern Contenda, with relatively flat ground and moderate slopes and climate conditions closest to the semi-arid, the predominant and typical vegetation is the open holm-oak woodlands, with under-cover of pastures and cultivations used for grazing. On Central Contenda with steeper relief and slopes the soil is covered by rock-rose and/or heather maquis, arboraceous maquis with cork-oak or holm-oak and also by young stone and maritime pine forest stands. In Southern Contenda, where the highest altitudes can be found and topography and slopes are less pronounced, the climate is sub-humid; this is the most afforested area, dominantly covered by stone pine, maritime pine and cork oak stands. Managed as a multiple use system, where forestry, hunting silvopastoral and protection/conservation of natural habitats / flora & fauna communities are maintained roughly in the same fashion since the 1960s. The main economic outputs are cattle and hunting. Cork was never harvested on the dominant areas of Contenda. Holm-oak tree decline is observed on silvopastoral areas. The natural regeneration of the tree stand is not uniform, and is lacking in some places because of grazing and shrub clearing. Conflicting interests arise from the livestock and game grazing component that affects the natural regeneration of holm and cork oak trees. Interventions and adjustments to promote natural regeneration and active afforestation of oaks have been included in management plans over the last 50 years. An Integral Protected Area where natural regeneration of holm and cork oaks between the natural woods and maquis is promoted was created on Central Contenda in 1963.

ICP-Forest and FutMon networks core plot.

Researches on marine benthic organisms around the Flegrean islands in the Gulf of Naples have been traditionally performed at the Stazione Zoologica since its foundation in 1872. The peculiarity of this area is strictly related to its geographic location, corrisponding to the winter surface isotherm of 14°C that cuts the Mediterranean Sea into two and represents a climatic boundary barrier for species with different biogeographic affinities. The richness in marine species and habitats of this area (including the islands of Ischia, Procida and Vivara) is preserved by the establishment in 2008 of the Marine Protected Area ‘Regno di Nettuno’. One of the most important habitat of the Gulf of Naples is represented by the Posidonia oceanica beds, an endemic seagrass that forms around the island of Ischia a continuous belt, from 0.5 m down to 38 m in depth, covering about 1700ha of the seafloor. Several meadows have been studied by the Benthic Group, located at Villa Dohrn on the Island of Ischia: Scarrupata di Barano, Cava dell’Isola, La Nave, San Pietro, Castello Aragonese and Lacco Ameno. The best-known meadow is that of Lacco Ameno (LA), studied since 1976, and located in the northern part of the island, in the bay bounded by ‘Monte Vico’ and the city of Lacco Ameno (40,7598 N, 13,900 E). Only in this station, the meadow is continuous from 0.5 m down to 32 m in depth and it covers an area of about 308 ha. In this pilot site (Station LTER-LA), a significant variability at different spatial and temporal scales has been recorded for plant descriptors and associated communities. In particular, at 5 and 10 m depths, a decrease in meadow density (a descriptor of the ecological status of a meadow, widely used by many authors to indicate the plant abundance) is evident since the end of 1980. This fact seems to suggest an increase in the anthropic pressure, even if other factors, such as physical disturbance, topographic complexity and nutrient availability, might operate to modify this system. The high plasticity of P. oceanica, which responds to a wide range of environmental conditions, have driven our researches towards the study of the effects of climatic changes, such as ocean acidifcation, on this vegetated system. Issues associated to climate changes are being approached also by the comparison with another Ischia P.oceanica meadow. This is located at Castello Aragonese (40,73083°N 13,96310°E), on the east side of the island, where a number of vents which release CO2 affect the P. oceanica system. These CO2 vents are unusual in that they are not heated and neither do they produce toxic compounds, providing a natural laboratory for the study of the ecosystem level effects of ocean acidification.

Preila EMEP station (LT-15) on air chemistry and deposition are provided

The Baget catchment is managed by the Laboratory of Functional Ecology and Environment (EcoLab), a joint Research Unit between the Institute of Ecology and Environment (INEE) of CNRS, the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse and the University Toulouse III-Paul Sabatier, in collaboration with BRGM (Occitania regional agency), the laboratory Geosciences and Environment Toulouse (GET) and the Station of Theoretical and Experimental Ecology (SETE) in Moulis (Ariège, France). The Baget catchment (Pyrénées, Ariège, France) is a mountain ecosystem of middle altitude (Alt.= 1000 m) receiving around 1000mm of precipitation per year. Located close to Balagué village at 10 km West from Saint-Girons, the Baget catchment (13.25 km2) is drained by a karstic network which supplied the surface runoff of Lachein stream (specific discharge: 36 l.s-1.km-2). It is a tributary of the Lez which joins the Salat River, right tributary of the Garonne River. From 1968, this experimental site was intensively equipped by the CNRS underground Laboratory of Moulis (today SETE). The device is composed of one main weir at the outlet, 3 full excess controls, 3 piezometers of which one inside the abyss, and one subterranean loss. This karstic watershed has been surveyed since 1968 for some hydro-climatic parameters, particularly air temperature, precipitations and stream discharge at the outlet. Some geochemical parameters (pCO2, chemical and isotopic compositions of waters) and some hydro-biological and ecological data (invertebrates, particularly Crustacea) have been surveyed for periods during the last 40 years by the CNRS underground Laboratory of Moulis. Since 2011, Baget catchment belongs to the French Network of Catchments (RBV) and it is included in the certified National Observatory Service SNO Karst. Then, new parameters are measured twice a month or with higher frequencies during some flood events (major cations and anions, alkalinity, pH, conductivity, dissolved organic carbon, total suspended matter, H, O, C isotopes…). Since 2014, a multi-parameter probe has been installed with different sensors to measure continuously water level, pH, conductivity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate and chloride. These continuous measurements are calibrated twice a month with laboratory analyses. The water discharge is measured by BRGM-Occitania because the Baget karst is part of the French patrimonial network of ground-waters and it belongs to the piezometric network managed by BRGM. The Baget catchment is very sensitive to limit conditions of surface drainage and to land covers. It offers the possibility to develop an eco-systemic survey, which integrates the hydrology, the geochemistry and the ecology of a mountain ecosystem in the SW of France. In this region, climate and land use changes will have significant impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and biogeochemical cycles for the next decades The Baget catchment is an international field site of the Critical Zone Exploration Network CZEN (http://www.czen.org/content/aurade-experimental-catchment) and it is one of the sites of the French SNO-KARST (Service National d'Observation) labellised by INSU-CNRS. It belongs to the French Research Infrastructure OZCAR and it is also a site of the French LTSER ZA PYGAR "Zone Atelier Pyrénées-Garonne".

The Jurassic Karst scheme in place since 2009 aims to characterise the long-term evolution of the karst aquifer system of the Jura mountains. The specific topographical context of the Jura mountains allows the study of these aquifers at increasing altitudes along a climatic gradient. The plant cover and soil types vary along this gradient, thereby modulating the biogeochemical functioning of the infiltration zone of the karst hydrosystems. Four karst springs are monitored at sites of increasing altitude: Fourbanne site (Doubs valley, near Baume-les-Dames): altitude 330 m, catchment surface 30 km2; Lods site (upper Loue valley): altitude 380 m, approx. catchment surface 35 km2; Fertans (Amancy plateau): altitude 530 m, approx. catchment surface 1 km2; Mouthe (source of Doubs river): altitude 950 m, approx. catchment surface 50 km2. A number of physico-chemical parameters are monitored continuously on all sites, and supplemented weekly by automatic sampling at Fourbanne, Lods and Fertans. Contact : Marc Steinmann; Chrono-Environment Laboratory – University of Franche-Comté

Grazing research site

Mata de Sines is one of the six research and monitoring stations of LTER-Montado, an umbrella site located in the Alentejo province in south Portugal (southwestern Iberia). The "Montado" represents an unique agro-silvo-pastoral ecosystem (named "dehesa" in Spain) found only in the Mediterranean basin. These savannah-like landscapes are dominated by evergreen cork and/or holm oaks and were shaped over millennia of traditional land use practices. These multi-use forests are two-layered systems that combine, in a single space, forest harvesting, extensive livestock husbandry, pastures and/or cereal cultivation (the most evident economical revenues), with other traditional uses (hunting, beekeeping and mushroom picking). Recently, increasing awareness arose on their benefits as biodiversity reservoirs, recreation grounds, and other ecosystem services providers, but these non-productive functions are not equally perceived and valued by users, as they tend to be conflicting with productive ones. Mata de Sines is a state property located in the littoral area in the Alentejo province, 140 km southeast Lisbon and 6 km from Sines (37° 59’N – 8° 50’W). Cork oak is the dominant tree in 301 ha of the total area, the remaining being occupied mostly by pine forest. Managed as a agro-silvo-pastoral system, most of the woodland has been managed so as to maintain or increase cork production during the last 15 years. Some tree decline is observed, especially on podzols. The natural regeneration of the tree stand is not uniform, and is lacking in some places because of old grazing and shrub clearing for fire prevention. Conflicting interests arise from the livestock grazing component, that affects the natural regeneration of cork oaks. Interventions and adjustments to promote natural regeneration and active afforestation are included in the management plan over the last 15 years.

Secchi depth is measured on a monthly basis in the Gulf of Trieste – time series station (station C1) as a general measure of seawater transparency.General information can be found at: http://nettuno.ogs.trieste.it/ilter/BIO/index.html