Field work - plot measurements (n=18)

This site was established on a tall, Japanese native grass (Miscanthus sinensis) pasture in 1982. Three different treatments (cutting, cattle grazing and abundoning) has been carried out. Vegetational characteristics is investigated on 60 locations (20 locations x 3 treatments, 2 m x 2 m each) in late August to early September.

The site Unterpullendorf is part of the European Level II Forest Monitoring System in the frame of the International Co-operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests). This site is one out of 16 Austrian Level II sites; it was established in 1995 and is, since 2006, part of the LTER Austria network. The site is situated about 80 km south of Vienna near the Hungarian border at 290 m a.s.l., in a homogenous about 100 years old managed oak stand.

The site is located in the Southern Carpathians (Romania). The predominant ecosystems are grasslands located above tree line, dominated by Carex curvula, Juncus trifidus (alpine zone) and Festuca airoides, Nardus stricta (subalpine zone). The site consists of monitoring points in subalpine and alpine meadows in the Bâlea-Paltinul area.

The Rollesbroich site is located in the low mountain range “Eifel” near the German-Belgium border and covers the area of the small Kieselbach catchment (40 ha) with altitudes ranging from 474 to 518 m.a.s.l.. The climate is temperate maritime with a mean annual air temperature and precipitation of 7.7 °C and 1033 mm, respectively, for the period from 1981 to 2001. Soils are dominated by (stagnic) Cambisols and Stagnosols on Devonian shales with occasional sandstone inclusions that are covered by a periglacial solifluction clay–silt layer. The mountainous grassland vegetation is dominated by perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and smooth meadow grass (Poa pratensis). The study site is highly instrumented. All components of the water balance (e.g. precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff, soil water content) are continuously monitored using state-of-the-art instrumentation, including weighable lysimeters, runoff gauges, cosmic-ray soil moisture sensors, a wireless sensor network that monitors soil temperature, and soil moisture at 189 locations in different depths (5, 20 and 50 cm) throughout the study site. Periodically also different chamber measurements were made to access soil or plant gas exchange.

Research Monitoring Station "Petrodolinskoye" (PTR) of the Regional Centre for Integrated Environmental Monitoring and Ecological Studies (RCIEM) of Odessa National I. I. Mechnikov University (ONU) is located on an actively managed arable land. The site is situated 8 km from the Dniester River, which enters the Black Sea (29 km from the study site). The station is located near the village “Mirnoe” (46º27'22.12''N; 30º20'9.94''E), 27 km southeast of Odessa and was established in 2006 within the framework of the EU FP6 NitroEurope IP (Medinets et al., 2014). The arable field study site is 10 ha in size with a flat topography at an elevation of 66 m above sea level. The soil is a black soil (FAO definition: Chernozems Vermi-Calcic, CH vec), and representative for the south of Ukraine (Medinets et al., 2014b, 2016). The climate is temperate continental, with an annual average air temperature of 10.5 °С (period of 2000-2014), an annual minimum mean of 8.4 °С and an annual maximum mean of 12.5 °С. Total average annual precipitation is 432 mm. The atmospheric total N (TN) deposition rate is moderate at ca. 11.4 kg N ha-1 y-1 with significant organic N contribution of circa 67% (Medinets et al., 2016). Crop rotation and management. The study site has been under active agricultural management for more than 200 years, although a detailed history of the agricultural management is unknown. Before autumn 2006 the area was managed by a collective farm (‘kolkhoz’). The study field, 10 ha in size, was leased in autumn 2006 from the Association of Agricultural Enterprises “Granit”. The crop rotation started with wheat in 2006, in the period 2007 – 2014 was onions (2007), tomatoes (2008), barley (2009) and winter wheat (2009/2010) followed by winter onion (2010/2011), carrot (2011), tomato (2012), red beetroot (2013) and onion (2014) followed by winter wheat. This rotation is typical for this region. Crops (except cereals) were grown with drip irrigation (installed in 5-10 cm depth), with fertilizer applied together with the irrigation (fertigation). E.g., during the study period of 2012-2014 the field was fertilized with mineral NPK fertilizers (see Medinets et al., 2016). To prevent plant diseases and to suppress weeds, pesticides and herbicides were applied to all crops following farmers practice. The following tillage methods were used: deep ploughing (40 cm depths), disking (10 cm depth), harrowing (10 cm depth), cultivation (10 cm depth), inter-row cultivation (5 cm depth); the soil was also disturbed under installation/ removing of irrigation tubes (see Medinets et al., 2016).

Luancheng station, established in 1981, is one of the field stations of the Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN) and a member of Global Terrestrial Observation System (GTOS). The station is also a demonstration base for modern agricultural technologies in Hebei province. In 2005, the station became one of the stations of the China National Ecosystem Observation and Research Network（CNERN）. Luancheng Station is located in Luancheng county of Hebei province (37°53' N, 114°41'E and elevation at 50.1 m), represents the typical high production area in the northern part of the North China Plain. The rapid declining groundwater table has become the main problem that threatens the sustainable agricultural development in this area. The researches conducted at the station focus on the long-term investigations of farmland ecosystem, water and nutrients transfer and regulation mechanisms, modern water-saving technologies, molecular breeding, precision agriculture and regional sustainable agro-ecosystem demonstration models etc.. The station has 28 ha land for field research and provides accommodation for scientists and students to stay. There are laboratories, field research infrastructure and equipments to be used for different experiments.

SEQ Peri-urban SuperSite - Karawatha is a member of the Australian SuperSite Network (SuperSites, http://www.supersites.net.au/), a facility within the Australian Terrestrial Ecosystem Network (TERN, http://www.tern.org.au/). SuperSites aims to answer both network wide and site-specific science questions through long term monitoring using both sensor technology and classical field methods. The SEQ Peri-urban SuperSite’s (SEQP) core infrastructure is located along two longitudinal transects north and south of Brisbane where the urban footprint is expanding the most rapidly. Karawatha Forest is on the southern peri-urban edge of Brisbane and is managed by the Brisbane City Council. It contains a variety of habitats from freshwater lagoons and sandstone ridges, to dry eucalypt forests and wet heath.

Research plot was moderate influenced by immisions (fluorine, SO2, tar, dust etc.) from aluminium smelter in Žiar nad Hronom (away 7 km).

The site of Botanic Garden Meise is a 92 ha domain near Brussels. It has been assembled from parts of two historic castle parks. For more than 75 years it has been home to a collection of plants, as well as a research institute dedicated to botany, forming one of the largest botanic gardens in Europe but also an important tourist attraction close to Brussels. Some habitats get a high degree of disturbance, either due to garden maintenance, or from the large number of visitors. There are also managed and more natural areas. A variety of terrestrial and aquatic habitats occur, among which valuable woody (semi-)natural areas, and also managed meadows. The study of biodiversity in the park has relealed an exceptional species richness in many taxonomic groups. More than 600 wild vascular plant species have been found since 2002, including rare species that were inadvertently introduced during the 19th century, so called wood lawn neophytes . Since 1993 the ectomycorrhizal fungi have been monitored, and there are observations of 52 Red List species in the domain. The park is also the richest Belgian site for Laboulbeniales (Ascomycetes), obligate ectoparasites of Arthropoda. Especially the wet ash-alder forests hold a number of rare and unique taxa and host-parasite combinations, some of them with only a few localities known worldwide. Moreover, the domain is a biodiversity hotspot for lichens and lichenicolous fungi, among other factors as a result of management, such as the regular maintenance of the undergrowth which has a positive effect on light-loving epiphytic lichens, and also due to the diversity of habitats and the large range of different substrates of varying age and of ecological conditions. Another well represented group are diatoms (Bacillariophyta), of which a mere survey in a small pond already yielded two species which have been described as new to science. The site is also rich in fauna, for example rare bat species that overwinter in our historical underground ice cellars. The diverse range of cultivated species also attracts an enormous range of arthropods and plant pathogens, which we know exceeds what we know of it.